THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


THE  LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


SKETCH 


OF    THE 


Life  and  Educational  Labors 


OF 


EBENEZEB,  BAILEY 


REPUBLISHED 

FROM  BARNARD'S  AMKUK'AX  JOURNAL  OK  KIUVATION. 
1861. 


Education 
Library 


&/.' 


This  memoir  was  prepared  at  the  request  of  the  Editor  for  publication 
in  the  American  Journal  of  Education.  A  few  copies  are  printed  in  this 
form  for  the  gratification  of  the  friends  and  former  pupils  of  Mr.  Bailey. 

H.  B. 
HARTFORD,  October,  1861. 


964183 


INTROD.UCTION. 


IN  compiling  a  brief  sketch  of  the  life  and  labors  of  the  late 
lamented  EBENEZER.  BAILEY,  the  indulgence  of  his  friends  and  of  the 
public  must  be  solicited  for  its  many  deficiencies  and  imperfections. 
So  long  a  period  has  elapsed  since  his  death,  which  took  place,  August 
5th,  1839,  that  many  of  those  little  incidents  and  traits  of  character, 
which  add  so  much  to  the  interest  of  a  biography,  have  necessarily 
faded  from  the  memory  of  those  who  knew  him  best.  The  death  of 
his  widow,  some  two  years  since,  has  moreover  deprived  his  friends 
of  the  testimony  of  one  who  could  better  than  any  other  have  sup- 
plied the  gaps  in  his  personal  history.  Then  again,  a  large  amount 
of  material  which  had  been  collected  and  placed  in  the  hands  of  the 
late  Mr.  Barnum  Field,  for  the  purpose  of  preparing  a  memoir,  was 
unfortunately  destroyed  after  Mr.  Field's  decease.  And  his  cor- 
respondence which  was  very  extensive,  and  carefully  preserved,  being 
most  methodically  arranged  by  his  own  hand,  still  referred  so  much 
to  matters  of  a  mere  personal  or  local  interest,  as  to  furnish  but  very 
scanty  data,  for  a  sketch  of  his  life.  A  few  family  letters,  a  journal 
kept  during  a  part  of  the  year  1818,  and  some  unfinished  manuscripts 
on  various  scientific  subjects,  comprise  all  the  material  available  for 
use. 

PROVIDENCE,  R.  I.,  September,  1861. 


MEMOIR. 


EBENEZER  BAILEY,  one  of  the  founders  of  the  American  Institute 
of  Instruction,  was  born  in  West  Newbury,  Massachusetts,  June  25th, 
1795.  His  father,  Paul  Bailey,  with  his  mother  and  ancestors  on  both 
sides  for  many  generations,  were  all  natives  of  that  ancient  and 
beautiful  town  on  the  shores  of  the  Merrimac.  His  father  possessed 
a  small  but  well -cultivated  farm,  and  by  his  industry  and  economy, 
like  so  many  of  our  New  England  yeomanry,  reared  his  family  of 
four  children  to  those  habits  of  enterprise  and  intelligence  which  lead 
to  usefulness  and  honor  in  after  life.  The  youngest  of  these  children, 
Ebenezer,  most  resembled  his  mother  in  disposition.  To  her  he  was 
deeply  attached ;  and  her  death,  which  took  place  soon  after  he 
graduated,  he  never  ceased  to  deplore.  Two  of  his  own  children  in 
after  life  bore  successively,  her  loved  and  honored  name,  Emma  Carr. 

Why  he  was  selected  as  the  aspirant  for  college  honors,  is  not 
known,  unless  it  were  from  the  love  of  learning,  and  love  of  books 
he  very  early  manifested.  Not  that  he  was  in  any  sense  a  book- 
worm  in  his  boyish  days ;  on  the  contrary,  he  was  full  of  life  and 
activity,  the  foremost  to  engage  in  every  manly  sport,  and  the  leader 
in  every  venturesome  expedition.  He  had  a  taste  for  mechanical 
contrivances  and  was  ingenious  in  making  little  machines,  and,  so  to 
speak,  philosophical  playthings.  Even  then  his  warm  heart  and  gen- 
erous, kindly  nature  made  him  a  general  favorite,  and  some  of  those 
who  wept  at  his  grave,  dated  the  beginning  of  their  friendship  from 
these  early  days. 

The  same  enthusiastic  love  of  nature,  the  same  remarkable  order 
and  method,  the  same  perfect  neatness  and  propriety,  the  same  regard 
for  truth  and  honor  which  characterized  him  in  after  life,  were  con- 
spicuous in  him  as  a  boy.  So  true  it  is, — 

"  The  child 's  the  father  of  the  man." 

He  entered  Yale  College,  New  Haven,  in  the  year  1813,  at  the  age 
of  eighteen.  His  father  provided  liberally  for  his  education,  and  his 
college  course  was  alike  honorable  to  himself  and  satisfactory  to  his 
friends.  Although  always  a  close  student,  he  was  a  favorite  with  his 


JO  EBENEZER  BAILEY. 

class,  and  many  of  his  college  friendships  continued  unbroken  through 
life.  Indeed  this  was  the  peculiarity  of  the  friendships  which  he  had 
the  rare  gift  of  inspiring — their  warinth  and  devotion  which  neither 
time  nor  absence  could  quench,  and  which  rendered  them  strong  and 
lasting  as  life  itself. 

He  graduated  with  honor,  September  17th,  1817.  Ilis  views  and 
prospects  at  this  time,  may  be  learned  by  the  following  extracts  from 
a  journal  which  he  kept  for  a  few  years. 

"NEW  HAVEN,  Saturday,  December  27th,  1817. 
"  I  left-Newbury  the  first  of  September,  accompanied  by  my  father, 
for  New  Haven,  with  a  determination  to  visit  the  Southern  states  in 
the  capacity  of  an  instructor  after  I  had  taken  my  degree.  Accord- 
ingly after  commencement,  iny  father  who  has  never  refused  me  a 
competent  supply  of  money,  gave  me  at  my  request  three  hundred 
dollars.  I  thought  this  would  be  sufficient  to  pay  my  bills,  and  leave 
$150  to  defray  my  expenses  to  the  South.  But  as  is  generally  the 
case  with  those  who  had  rather  see  a  trader  use  his  pen  than  change 
a  note,  my  debts  were  greater  than  I  expected ;  so  that  I  had  some- 
thing less  than  $70  left  for  my  Southern  expedition.  But  my  father 
had  gone  home  ;  and  with  this  sum  I  was  to  make  my  debut  into  the 
wide  world  of  active  life  ! 

Though  I  had  lived  at  home  but  little  since  I  was  fifteen,  and  of 
course  had  been  accustomed  to  associate  and  deal  with  strangers, 
still  I  was  very  little  acquainted  with  the  art  of  living.  The 
generosity  of  my  father  had  always  hitherto  supplied  me  with  a 
quantum,  sufficit  of  cash ;  but  now  I  began  to  suspect  that  to  earn 
and  to  spend  were  not  quite  the  same  thing.  Neither  was  it  alto- 
gether so  easy  and  pleasant  for  one  to  hold  his  own  purse  strings — 
especially  if  there  be  nothing  in  it  but  a  memorandum  of  debts ! — as 
I  used  to  fancy  it  when  a  boy.  I  well  recollect  that  then,  when  a 
hint  to  my  father,  like  a  merchant's  word,  would  pass  for  more  than 
it  was  worth — I  engrossed  in  flaming  capitals  in  my  pocket  book, — 

'GOD    LOVETH   THE    CHEERFUL    GIVER,' 

but  were  I  now  to  honor  my  red  morocco  vacuum  with  a  motto,  it 
would  be  from  Shakspeare;  "Who  steals  my  purse,  steals  trash; — 
'tis  something,  nothing" 

But  to  return  to  my  seventy  dollars.  A  class-mate  and  particular 
friend,  whose  purse  was  not  as  long  as  his  credit,  needed  fifty  dollars 
to  clear  him  out ;  and  I  freely  lent  him  the  sum,  on  condition  he 
should  send  it  back  by  the  next  mail  after  he  reached  home.  It  so 
nappened  that  he  did  not  return  it  for  eight  weeks.  During  this 


EBENEZER  BAILEY.  JJ 

period  I  received  several  applications  to  go  South,  which  I  could  not 
accept  for  want  of  funds  to  get  there.  And  when,  at  last,  my  money 
did  arrive,  my  expenses  in  the  city  had  consumed  it  all  into  four  or 
6ve  dollars  !  What  measures  to  take  in  this  extremity,  I  knew  not. 
I  was  about  two  hundred  miles  from  home,  without  experience  in 
managing,  without  money,  without  means  of  procuring  any  (unless 
by  writing  home,  which  my  pride  forbade)  and  I  had  almost  said — 
without  hope.  I  resolved  and  re-resolved  till  I  found  myself  con- 
siderably in  debt  and  not  a  cent  in  pocket.  But  conscious  withal 

that 

'A  poor  spirit 
Is  poorer  than  a  poor  purse,' 

I  determined  not  to  yield  to  circumstances,  but  if  possible,  to  make 
circumstances  yield  to  me." 

He  then  goes  on  to  state  that  being  unable  to  carry  out  his  original 
plans,  he  concluded  to  purchase  the  good  will  and  fixtures  of  a  private 
school  for  boys  recently  established  in  New  Haven.  He  found  that 
he  had  been  most  grossly  deceived  in  regard  to  the  prospects  and  con- 
dition of  the  school,  but  by  great  energy,  he  brought  it  up  to  a  good 
reputation,  and  the  number  of  scholars  rapidly  increased.  At  the 
same  time,  he  entered  his  name  as  student  at  law  in  the  office  of  Hon. 
Seth  P.  Staples,  intending  to  make  that  his  profession.  But  he  soon 
found  this  double  burden  too  seve're  a  strain  even  for  his  iron  constitu- 
tion. At  that  time  it  was  his  habit  to  study  till  midnight,  and  rise  at 
five  in  the  morning  to  resume  his  labors ;  and  his  health  began  to 
suffer  from  this  unremitting  toil  day  and  night.  So  a  favorable 
opportunity  offering,  he  disposed  of  his  school,  abandoned  forever  the 
study  of  law,  and  engaged  as  tutor  in  Col.  Carter's  family  at  Sabine 
Hall,  Richmond  County,  Virginia. 

It  is  curious  in  this  swift-moving  age,  to  trace  his  slow  and  tedious 
journey  by  stage  and  boat.  Leaving  New  Haven,  December  29th, 
1817,  he  did  not  reach  Sabine  Hall  till  the  12th  of  the  following 
month.  Here  he  was  received  with  true  Virginian  hospitality,  and 
soon  won  the  attachment  of  his  pupils,  and  the  respect  and  confidence 
of  all  with  whom  he  was  brought  into  contact.  His  position  was 
peculiarly  favorable  for  seeing  Southern  customs  in  their  best  aspects, 
and  his  year's  residence  in  Virginia  was  always  regarded  by  him  as  a 
pleasing  episode  in  his  life.  Col.  Carter  numbered  among  his  friends 
and  family  connections  some  of  the  oldest  and  most  aristocratic 
families  in  the  state.  The  plantation  was  very  extensive,  the  house, 
of  the  old  English  style,  was  at  once  peculiar  and  picturesque,  the 
grounds  were  spacious  and  handsome,  the  equipages,  attendants,  in 


12  ECENEZER  BAILEY 

short,  the  whole  establishment  on  the  largest  and  most  liberal  scale. 
The  free  and  open  hospitality  of  the  society  there  impressed  Mr. 
Bailey  very  favorably;  and  he  was  no  less  struck  with  the  lack  of 
that  thrift  and  home  comfort  so  dear  to  the  heart  of  a  New  Eng- 
lander,  which  was  often  strangely  blended  with  an  almost  princely 
magnificence. 

While  in  Virginia,  he  accompanied  Col.  Carter's  family  in  their 
annual  summer  excursion  to  the  mountains,  and  spent  some  time  at 
Oakly,  a  seat  in  the  northern  Neck  of  Virginia.  His  journal  con- 
tains full  and  glowing  descriptions  of  the  various  scenes  he  visited  ; 
particularly  of  Harper's  Ferry,  and  the  other  wonders  of  nature  in 
that  region,  and  of  his  visit  to  the  birthplace  and  the  grave  of 
Washington.  The  journey  was  mostly  performed  on  horseback,  and 
gave  rise  to  many  amusing  and  exciting  adventures.  In  the  absence 
of  inns,  the  party  used  generally  to  pass  the  night  at  the  residences 
of  their  various  friends  on  the  route,  often  prolonging  their  stay  to 
several  days.  In  his  remarks  upon  the  ladies  of  a  family  thus  visited, 
may  be  traced  the  germ  of  the  conviction  which  he  afterwards  so 
strongly  cherished  and  so  triumphantly  maintained  in  regard  to  the 
mental  powers  and  capacities  of  woman.  "These  ladies,"  says  he, 
"  show  by  their  example,  that  the  toilet  ought  not  to  engross  the 
whole  of  a  woman's  life ;  that  her  mind  is  capable  of  higher  and 
nobler  attainments  than  to  adjust  a  ribbon  or  display  a  gewgaw  to 
the  best  advantage !" 

His  remarks  on  the  frivolity  of  life  at  the  Springs  show  an  unusual 
gravity  and  dignity  of  character  for  a  young  man  of  twenty -three. 
After  indulging  in  a  vein  of  humor  and  sportive  satire  on  the  various 
classes  of  pleasure-seekers  there  congregated,  he  adds,  "  For  a  per- 
son who  considers  life  too  short  to  perform  the  active  duties  incum- 
bent on  man — who  views  all  actions  in  reference  to  their  ends,  and 
receives  pleasure  from  them  in  proportion  to  their  utility,  a  watering- 
place  has  no  charms ;  and  even  the  votaries  of  pleasure  soon  become 
satiated." 

Perhaps  in  the  present  excited  state  of  the  public  mind,  it  may  not 
be  uninteresting  to  know  how  the  subject  of  slavery  was  regarded  in 
Virginia  some  forty  years  since;  at  least  how  it  appeared  to  be 
regarded  by  one  who  had  wide  opportunities  for  observation,  and  who 
was  certainly  unprejudiced  and  dispassionate  in  his  judgment.  The 
following  paragraph  seems  almost  prophetic. 

"Statesmen  and  politicians  have  already  begun  to  discuss  the  most 
feasible  plan  for  emancipating  all  the  slaves  in  America.  It  is 
probable  that  a  century  will  be  too  short  a  period  to  finish  this  great 


EBENEZER  BAILEY.  |3 

work;  but  there  is  no  subject  which  so  loudly  and  imperiously 
demands  the  attention  of  the  American  people  as  this.  The  people 
of  the  South  begin  to  view  slavery  in  its  true  light.  Instead  of  a 
blessing,  they  regard  it  as  a  curse,  entailed  upon  them  by  their 
ancestors,  which  it  will  require  all  their  energies  to  do  away.  On  this 
subject,  I  have  heard  but  one  voice  in  Virginia.  A  dark  cloud  hangs 
over  the  future  destinies  of  this  section  of  our  country,  which  few  can 
behold  without  trembling,  and  of  which  its  inhabitants  are  fully 
aware" 

Mr.  Bailey  remained  a  little  more  than  a  year  in  Virginia,  when 
he  returned  to  West  Newbury,  and  afterwards  went  to  Newburyport, 
Massachusetts,  where  he  opened  a  private  school  for  young  ladies. 
There  he  formed  many  life-long  ties.  His  friendship  with  the  Rev. 
John  Pierpont,  which  death  has  hardly  severed,  there  commenced ; — 
and  there  are  many  others  who  still  recall  with  pleasure  these  early 
days  sacred  to  glowing  hopes,  and  true  and  honest  hearts.  There  too, 
he  was  introduced  to  the  family  of  Mr.  Allen  Dodge,  then  a  merchant 
of  that  town,  who  placed  his  daughters  under  his  instruction ;  one  of 
whom  a  few  years  later,  became  his  wife.  Her  brother,  Hon.  Allen 
W.  Dodge,  now  of  Hamilton,  Mass.,  has  cordially  furnished  a  most 
faithful  portraiture  of  his  departed  friend  and  brother,  which  will  be 
introduced  hereafter. 

Highly  appreciated  and  successful  in  Newburyport;  he  yet  regarded 
Boston  as  a  wider  and  more  congenial  field  of  action ;  and  in  the 
year  1823,  accepted  with  pleasure  an  appointment  as  head  master  of 
the  Franklin  Grammar  School  for  boys  in  that  city.  This  school  had 
latterly  fallen  into  a  very  low  state  of  discipline,  and  the  boys  had 
almost  held  the  reins  in  their  own  hands ;  but  a  few  firm  but  judicious 
cases  of  discipline  at  first,  soon  established  the  authority  of  their  new 
master,  who  then  easily  won  their  love  and  confidence.  The  power 
of  his  influence  over  them  may  be  illustrated  from  the  fact,  that 
being  unavoidably  detained  from  school  one  morning,  he  bent  his 
steps  thither  late  in  the  forenoon,  almost  dreading  to  encounter  a 
scene  of  anarchy  and  confusion ;  to  his  surprise,  however,  he  found 
the  whole  school  in  perfect  order  and  busily  engaged  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  their  regular  lessons,  having  elected  two  of  the  best  scholars 
in  their  number,  as  teachers  pro  tern.  ! 

Early  in  the  year  1825,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Adeline  Dodge  of 
Newburyport.  Although  very  young,  only  eighteen,  she  possessed  a 
mind  of  fine  natural  endowments,  improved  by  a  much  more  liberal 
course  of  education  than  was  common  at  that  day.  A  constant 
sufferer  from  ill-health  through  life,  she  was  ever  the  true  symp.i- 


14  EBENEZER  BAILEY. 

thizing  wife,  whose  love  and  reverence  for  her  husband  knew  no 
bounds. 

In  the  same  year  he  was  unanimously  pronounced  the  successful 
competitor  for  the  Prize  Ode  to  be  delivered  at  the  Boston  Theatre 
on  the  anniversary  of  Washington's  birthday.  A  few  extracts  from 
this  poem  will  show  that  he  possessed  poetic  talent  of  no  mean  order. 
Many  of  the  fugitive  pieces  from  his  pen  that  appeared  in  the  jour- 
nals of  the  day,  were  of  marked  beauty;  and  indeed,  Griswokl 
includes  him  among  his  "Poets  of  America."  He  was  several  times 
appointed  Poet  for  the  Anniversaries  of  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  of  his 
Alma  Mater,  an  honor  which,  however,  circumstances  always  prevented 
him  from  accepting. 

The  Ode  which  is  entitled  "The  Triumphs  of  Liberty,"  opens  with 
an  invocation  to  the  Spirit  of  Freedom,  and  then  depicts  her  triumphs 
in  the  contests  for  liberty  and  independence  in  Greece,  and  on  "  the 
Andes'  fronts  of  snow,"  which  then  claimed  so  large  a  share  of  the 
public  sympathy  and  interest,  lie  next  turns  to  the  oppressors  and 
tyrants  of  the  human  race,  and  predicts  their  final  overthrow.  Then, 
by  an  easy  transition,  he  invokes  the  spirit  of  Washington.  The 
following  passage  commemorates  Lafayette's  visit  to  his  tomb. 

"  Say,  ye  just  spirits  of  the  good  and  brave, 
Were  tears  of  holier  feeling  ever  shed, 
O'er  the  proud  marble  of  the  regal  dead, 

Than  gushed  at  Vernon's  rude  and  lonely  grave ; 
When  from  your  starry  thrones,  ye  saw  the  son, 
He  loved  and  honored  ? — weep  for  Washington." 

The  following  are  the  closing  lines  of  the  poem. — 

"  As  fade  the  rainbow  hues  of  day, 
Earth's  gorgeous  pageants  pass  away, 
Her  temples,  arches,  monuments,  must  fall ; 
For  Time's  oblivious  hand  is  on  them  all. 

The  proudest  kings  must  end  their  toil, 
To  slumber  with  the  humblest  dead, — 

Earth's  conquerors  mingle  with  the  soil, 
That  groaned  beneath  their  iron  tread  ; 
And  all  the  trophies  of  their  power  and  guilt. 
Sink  to  oblivion  with  the  blood  they  spilt. 
But  still  the  everlasting  voice  of  Fame, 
Shall  swell  in  anthems  to  THE  PATRIOT'S  name, 
Who  toiled — who  lived — to  bless  mankind — and  hurled 

Oppression  from  the  throne, 
Where  long  she  swayed,  remorseless  and  alone, 

Her  scorpion  sceptre  o'er  a  shrinking  world, 


KBENEZER  BA1LKV.  15 

What  though  no  sculptured  marble  guard  his  dust, 
Nor  "mouldering  urn  "  receive  the  hallowed  trust, 
For  him  a  prouder  mausoleum  towers 
Which  Time  but  strengthens  with  his  storms  and  showers. 

The  land  he  saved,  the  empire  of  THE  FREE, — 
Thy  broad  and  steadfast  throne,  triumphant  LIBERTY  1" 

Iii  the  latter  part  of  this  same  year,  the  High  School  for  Girls  was 
established  as  an  experiment,  and  Mr.  Bailey  was  selected  as  its 
teacher.  He  entered  on  the  duties  of  his  office,  November  15th,  1825, 
and  soon  infused  his  own  enthusiasm  and  spirit  into  the  school.  The 
number  of  applicants  for  admission,  was  more  than  the  limited 
accommodations  provided  could  possibly  contain.  But  the  jealousy 
of  some  of  the  members  of  the  city  government  was  early  excited  by 
the  rapid  strides  of  the  school  to  popularity,  and  it  was  subjected  to 
various  petty  annoyances,  and  worst  of  all  to  neglect,  by  those  who 
should  have  cherished  and  fostered  it. 

The  mayor  of  the  city,  lion.  Josiah  Quincy,  in  particular,  had 
never  been  friendly  to  the  school,  and  pronounced  it  an  "entire  failure" 
in  a  report  which  he  presented  regarding  the  Public  Schools  of  Bos- 
ton. Though  this  report  was  published  after  Mr.  Bailey's  resigna- 
tion of  his  position  as  master  of  the  High  School,  and  when  the 
private  school  he  had  opened  was  in  the  full  tide  of  success,  still  he 
felt  called  upon  to  vindicate  the  High  School  from  such  a  charge. 
I  !«•  accordingly  wrote  a  "Review  of  the  Mayor's  Report,"  in  which 
he  set  forth  the  facts  with  great  power  and  vigor.  This  Review 
attracted  much  attention  at  the  time,  and  as  it  not  only  contains  the 
history  of  the  High  School  for  girls  in  Boston,  but  also  presents  some 
of  Mr.  Bailey's  own  views  on  the  subject  of  education,  it  has  been 
thought  advisable  to  condense  it,  and  append  it  to  this  article,  where 
accordingly  it  will  be  found. 

The  "Young  Ladies' High  School "  established  December,  1827, 
in  rooms  taken  in  Spring  Lane,  may  almost  be  said  to  have  inaugura- 
ted a  new  era  in  female  education.  Here  Mr.  Bailey  could  give  free 
scope  to  the  development  of  his  favorite  and  long-cherished  ideas  as 
to  the  wisdom  and  propriety  of  extending  the  widest  and  most  liberal 
culture  to  the  female  mind.  How  successfully  these  ideas  were  carried 
out,  how  nobly  maintained,  how  closely  they  appealed  to  the  sympa- 
thies of  the  community,  may  be  read  in  the  history  of  this  school. 
{'Yum  the  first  it  commanded  a  wide-spread  patronage,  and  enjoyed  a 
high  reputation,  not  only  in  Boston  and  its  vicinity,  but  in  remote 
and  distant  quarters.  It  numbered  among  its  members,  those  from 
the  South  and  West,  from  the  British  Provinces,  as  well  as  from  the 


IQ  EBENEZER  B  A I  LEV. 

larger  cities  and  towns  of  the  East.  Mr.  Bailey  was  always  extremely 
liberal  in  freely  bestowing  all  the  advantages  of  the  school  on  those 
whose  means  would  not  allow  them  to  acquire  such  an  education  as 
their  talents  merited.  Beside  many  others  he  thus  aided,  he  was 
for  a  long  time  in  the  habit  of  educating  without  charge,  one  of  the 
graduates  from  each  of  the  public  schools  for  girls  in  Boston,  leaving 
it  to  the  masters  to  select  the  most  deserving.  An  incalculable 
amount  of  good  was  thus  done,  and  so  kindly  and  delicately  that  none 
but  the  recipients  knew  the  fact. 

All  the  arrangements  of  the  school  were  on  the  most  liberal  scale. 
The  rooms,  particularly  those  at  Phillips  Place  and  the  Masonic 
Temple,  were  spacious,  and  conveniently,  not  to  say  elegantly, 
furnished.  It  will  be  remembered  that  these  points  were  not  con- 
sidered so  important  thirty  years  since,  as  at  the  present  day  ;  and 
Mr.  Bailey  may  almost  be  regarded  as  much  a  pioneer  in  this  respect, 
as  in  his  views  of  female  education.  The  convenient  desks,  the  hand- 
some cases  filled  with  works  of  reference  and  of  literature,  the  cabinets 
of  shells  and  minerals,  the  extensive  and  valuable  apparatus,  most  of 
it  imported  from  Europe  at  great  cost,  were  new  features  in  most 
school-rooms  of  the  day,  and  added  not  a  little  to  the  interest  of  the 
scholars.  Then  too,  if  there  were  a  spot  for  flowers  to  grow,  it  was 
soon  covered  with  bright  and  blooming  plants,  for  he  was  not  only 
enthusiastic  in  his  love  for  flowers,  but  was  a  successful  cultivator  of 
them.  While  every  species  of  innocent  amusement  was  not  only 
allowed,  but  encouraged  at  the  hour  of  recess;  that  once  over,  the 
most  perfect  order  was  enjoined  and  expected. 

Justice  can  hardly  be  done  at  this  late  day,  to  the  various  excel- 
lencies of  the  school ;  to  the  order  and  precision  combined  with  a 
rare  spirit  and  enthusiasm ;  to  the  thoroughness  in  every  department, 
united  with  a  wide  spread  culture,  and  acquaintance  with  general 
literature.  The  course  of  instruction  was  liberal,  embracing  the 
ancient  and  modern  languages,  and  the  exact  sciences,  and  never 
neglecting  the  common  English  branches.  To  carry  out  these  objects, 
the  best  teachers  of  modern  languages  and  modern  accomplishments 
were  obtained  that  could  be  procured,  and  in  most  cases  their  in- 
structions were  given  in  classes,  that  met  after  the  regular  exercises 
of  the  school  had  closed.  Besides  these,  an  experienced  and  accom- 
plished preceptress,  and  an  excellent  corps  of  teachers  trained  under 
his  own  eye,  were  constantly  employed.  The  aims  and  scope  of  the 
school  may  be  inferred  from  his  own  words,  in  his  annual  catalogue. 
"I  regard  the  discipline  of  the  mind  and  the  acquisition  of  knowl- 
edge as  the  two  ends  of  education.  The  principal  object  in  a  well- 


EBENEZER  BAILEY.  If 

regulated  school,  should  not  be  to  teach  the  pupils  a  great  many 
things,  though  this  should  not  be  neglected.  But  it  should  be  to  call 
into  exercise  the  various  intellectual  powers,  and  to  establish  such 
habits  of  thought,  as  shall  lead  the  learner  to  regard  the  work  of 
education  as  only  begun,  when  the  days  of  school-discipline  are 
finished."  How  well  this  idea  was  carried  out,  let  those  testify  who 
still  are  reaping  its  benefits.  Another  prominent  object  of  the  school, 
was  to  fit  young  ladies  for  teachers ;  indeed,  he  often  recommended 
teaching  for  a  few  months  as  a  proper  finale,  to  those  who  were  about 
to  finish  their  school  course.  The  young  ladies,  educated  by  Mr. 
Bailey,  were  eagerly  sought  for  as  teachers  in  academies,  &c.,  at  the 
North,  and  as  governesses  at  the  South.  His  correspondence  on  this 
one  point  is  of  no  inconsiderable  amount,  and  he  probably  furnished 
hundreds  of  young  ladies  with  situations  as  teachers.  These  still 
sought  his  advice,  told  him  the  difficulties  of  their  new  position,  and 
losing  him  as  a  teacher,  yet  retained  him  as  a  faithful  and  valued 
friend. 

Visitors  from  every  quarter  were  attracted  to  the  school,  though 
there  was  never  any  public  exhibition  or  display  of  any  kind.  Other 
teachers  often  came,  who  noted  down  all  the  minutise  of  plan  and 
execution,  and  strove  to  catch  the  spirit  of  the  place.  To  such, 
Mr.  Bailey  always  freely  gave  his  advice  and  aid,  even  when  sought 
by  those  who  were  about  establishing  similar  schools  in  the  same 
city,  for  he  was  far  above  the  petty  rivalry  of  little  minds,  and  was 
generous  in  his  friendship.  Perhaps  the  secret  of  his  success  lay  in 
the  unbounded  influence  which  he  possessed  over  his  scholars,  and  in 
the  animus  which  fired  the  whole  school.  The  master's  eye  was  felt 
to  be  on  each  one  of  the  whole  number,  and  the  utmost  thorough- 
ness and  precision  attended  each  movement  of  the  complicated 
machinery.  How  was  this  accomplished  ?  By  a  very  simple  method 
apparently.  While  the  First  Class  in  any  particular  branch,  was 
under  his  especial  charge,  and  each  of  the  other  classes  had  its  ap- 
pointed teacher,  often  when  least  expected,  he  came  into  one  of  the 
subordinate  classes,  and  there  would  be  an  exchange  of  teachers. 
AVoe  then  to  the  delinquent  class,  and  the  delinquent  scholar !  In 
tears  and  trembling,  they  hear  their  sentence  to  review  the  whole 
ground  again,  or  are  sent  into  a  lower  class.  But  if  they  do  well. 
how  precious  is  the  smile  and  word  of  praise  which  they  win  !  Never 
did  he  fail,  in  spite  of  cunningly  devised  plots  and  sly  manoeuvres,  to 
appear  before  the  class  in  Caesar,  as  a  guide  over  the  pons  asinorum  f 
If  they  stumbled  or  halted,  they  were  compelled  to  retrace  their  steps 
to  the  beginning  of  the  journey,  and  so  gather  strength  for  the  conflict ! 


jg  EBENEZER  BAILEY. 

The  system  of  reviews  was  very  comprehensive  and  thorough. 
Every  book  that  was  gone  through  with  by  a  class,  was  reviewed  to 
him ;  she  who  could  satisfactorily  recite  the  long  lessons  assigned, 
could  take  another  book;  otherwise  must  go  over  the  same  ground 
with  the  next  class.  The  Latin  Grammar  in  particular  was  studied 
with  almost  unequaled  thoroughness,  and,  in  fact  was  never  abandoned, 
while  the  study  of  Latin  was  continued.  Every  lesson  and  exercise 
was  carefully  marked,  and  merits  were  deducted  for  tardiness  and 
misconduct.  At  the  close  of  the  term,  a  balance  was  struck ;  she 
who  had  the  greatest  number  of  merits,  took  the  "first  rank,"  and  so 
on  through  the  whole  school.  There  was  an  immense  amount  of 
competition  for  these  honors ;  and  as  extra  merits  could  be  obtained 
for  extra  exercises,  the  contest  sometimes  became  not  only  exciting, 
but  almost  injurious  to  health  and  strength.  There  was  no  prize  held 
out  to  these  competitors,  some  of  the  "little  girls"  to  be  sure,  wore 
medals  while  at  the  head  of  their  classes,  but  these  victors,  like 
those  in  the  Olympic  games,  contended  for  the  honor  of  the  victory 
alone. 

The  reputation  which  the  Young  Ladies'  High  School  enjoyed  for 
excellence  in  reading,  and  in  compositions,  may  excuse  a  somewhat 
extended  account  of  the  means  employed  to  bring  about  this  profi- 
ciency. Perhaps  the  shortest  explanation  may  be  to  say,  that  these 
classes  were  under  Mr.  Bailey's  personal  supervision,  and  thus  put 
forth  every  effort  to  meet  his  expectations.  Arranged  solely  in  refer- 
ence to  these  two  branches,  without  regard  to  any  other,  the  poorest 
scholar  in  other  respects,  felt  that  here  she  might  achieve  a  success. 
The  reading  was  always  in  presence  of  the  whole  school,  who  were 
required  to  give  their  attention  to  it,  and  often  to  vote  on  the  promo- 
tion of  those  they  thought  worthy  of  advancement.  The  reading 
was  remarkably  distinct  and  natural,  and  free  from  every  thing  like 
"mouthing"  or  affectation.  Original  compositions  were  required 
weekly,  from  each  scholar,  who  was  usually  allowed  to  select  her 
own  subject.  These  compositions  were  most  carefully  corrected  and 
criticised ;  and  when  one  appeared  of  unusual  excellence,  it  was 
"recorded,"  that  is,  copied  into  a  book  kept  for  that  purpose,  and  the 
writer,  if  in  a  lower  class,  was  at  once  promoted  to  the  first  class. 
Thirty  large  quarto  volumes  were  thus  filled  with  essays,  tales,  poems, 
and  even  dramas,  many  of  which  were  of  high  order.  Three  of  the 
best  readers  in  the  school  were  selected  by  ballot,  to  read  these  com- 
positions, and  this  exercise  weekly  attracted  a  large  and  intelligent 
audience,  drawn  not  from  curiosity  alone,  but  by  the  interest  of  the 
pieces,  and  by  the  excellence  of  the  reading. 


EBENEZER  BAILEY.  jg 

Perhaps  the  eyes  of  some  may  rest  upon  this  page  to  whom  this 
sketch,  imperfect  as  it  is,  presents  no  vague  abstraction.  They  can 
ivrall  the  kindling  eye  and  glowing  cheek  of  these  youthful  aspirants 
for  knowledge ;  they  can  tell  of  the  untiring  interest  which  never 
flagged  in  ascending  her  rugged  steeps.  No  teacher  ever  held  more 
absolute  control  over  the  hearts  of  his  scholars,  or  ever  had  more 
entire  confidence  reposed  in  him,  which  was  constantly  manifesting 
itself  in  various  ways.  From  the  many  expressions  of  love  and 
friendship  which  he  received  from  time  to  time,  the  conclusion  of  the 
farewell  address  of  his  pupils  on  his  giving  up  the  charge  of  the 
Young  Ladies'  High  School,  is  selected  as  showing  how  they  regarded 
him. 

"  We  are  grieved  that  you  deprive  us  of  the  advantage  of  your 
instruction.  We  are  disappointed  that  you  leave  the  sphere  which 
has  seemed  so  peculiarly  your  own.  We  should  better  love  to  see 
you  continue  to  occupy  the  station  for  which  you  are  so  admirably 
qualified.  We  are  sure  that  many,  many  voices  from  abroad  will  echo 
our  sentiments ;  that  many  amongst  your  former  pupils,  who  have 
witnessed  your  faithful  exertions  in  the  cause  of  intellectual  advance- 
ment, observe  with  feelings  of  regret,  your  abdication  of  the  seat 
where  you  have  so  long  remained,  surrounded  by  pleasant  associa- 
tions and  grateful  remembrances. 

You  go  from  us — how  shall  the  mind  know  its  home,  when  the 
genius  that  identified  it,  has  departed  !  We  can  not  forget  you ;  but 
where  you  go,  you  will  not  be  reminded  of  us  by  everything  about 
you.  May  we  ask  you  then  to  take  this  simple  piece  of  plate,  that 
the  sight  of  it  may  bring  before  your  mind's  eye,  those  whom  you 
now  leave,  whose  kindest  wishes  for  your  happiness,  whose  deepest 
interest  in  your  prosperity,  will  ever  be  with  you." 

While  Mr.  Bailey's  time  and  thoughts  were  chiefly  occupied  by  the 
duties  of  his  profession,  yet  he  was  by  no  means,  the  mere  pedagogue. 
His  mind  was  comprehensive  and  far-reaching  in  its  aims ;  his  indus- 
try, untiring ;  and  his  public  spirit  led  him  to  accept  many  positions 
which  were  no  sinecures.  In  1830,  he  was  one  of  a  committee  to 
draft  the  constitution  for  the  permanent  organization  of  the  American 
Institute  of  Instruction  ;*  and  he  held  various  offices  in  that  body, 
which  involved  a  large  amount  of  labor  and  correspondence.  He 
was  also  appointed  on  committees  to  publish  volumes  of  the  Lectures 
delivered  before  the  Institute,  and  to  arrange  the  programmes  of  the 
meetings  when  held  in  Boston — which  duties  must  have  encroached 
considerably  on  his  time.  He  was  a  member  of  the  City  Council  of 

*  See  Barnard's  "American  Journal  of  Education,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  24. 


20  EBBNEZER  BAILEY. 

Boston  for  several  years ;  and  was  also  a  Director  of  the  House  of  lie- 
formation,  in  which  institution  he  always  manifested  a  deep  interest, 
and  to  promote  the  welfare  of  which,  he  labored  faithfully  and 
judiciously  for  many  years. 

His  literary  productions  during  this  period  were  important,  and 
involved  much  time  and  labor.  He  was  a  frequent  and  welcome  con- 
tributor to  the  columns  of  the  "Courier"  then  edited  by  his  friend 
Mr.  Buckingham,  and  to  several  other  papers  and  periodicals.  He 
was  often  called  upon  to  deliver  lectures  before  lyceums,  and  indeed 
was  president  of  the  Boston  Lyceum  and  one  of  the  directors  of  the 
Boston  Mechanics'  Institution.  Several  unfinished  works  on  Geome- 
try, Astronomy  and  other  scientific  subjects,  and  copious  Note-books, 
attest  his  industry.  Besides  these,  he  compiled  in  1831,  an  excellent 
selection  of  reading  lessons,  well  known  for  many  years,  as  "J7tc 
Young  Ladies'  Class  Book"  This  was  followed  by  "BakewelCs 
Philosophical  Conversations]'  an  English  treatise  on  Philosophy, 
written  in  a  familiar  style,  which  he  revised,  and  adapted  for  use  in 
American  schools.  But  the  work  which  most  bears  his  peculiar 
stamp  as  author,  and  by  which  he  is  best  known,  is  '•'•Bailey's  Algebra]' 
published  first  in  1833,  and  designed  especially  for  the  use  of  young 
ladies — though  it  has  also  been  extensively  used  as  a  text-book  for 
boys.  It  was  the  first  work  on  the  science  that  pretended  to  be 
adapted  to  the  wants  of  beginners,  and  its  popularity  was  such,  that 
it  continued  to  be  used  in  spite  of  the  numerous  and  more  modern 
treatises  that  were  constantly  issued  from  the  press.  So  much  so  that 
its  publishers  have  recently  had  it  thoroughly  revised  and  enlarged,  in 
order  to  adapt  it  more  fully  to  the  wants  of  schools  of  the  present 
day. 

It  will  be  asked,  "How  was  Mr.  Bailey  able  to  accomplish  so 
much  ?"  By  simple,  unremitting  industry,  and  method  in  all  his 
operations.  He  rose  very  early,  sometimes  at  three  and  often  at  four 
o'clock,  and  studied  before  breakfast.  Though  very  hospitable,  he 
did  not  mingle  much  in  general  society.  His  pleasures  were  simple ; 
to  cultivate  his  little  garden,  bowl  for  a  few  hours  with  some  of  his 
chosen  friends,  take  a  ride  with  his  family  in  the  beautiful  environs 
of  Boston,  these  he  enjoyed  keenly,  and  entered  into  with  all  his 
heart.  His  health  was  almost  uniformly  good  ;  he  was  never  troubled 
with  dyspepsia  and  headache,  these  banes  of  the  school-room.  And 
when  even  his  strength  and  power  of  endurance  flagged  at  the  end 
of  the  year's  work,  a  run  into  the  country  in  the  summer  vacation,  or 
a  few  weeks'  gunning  on  the  marshes  of  Cape  Cod,  would  soon  restore 
his  wonted  vigor.  His  massive  frame,  and  uncommon  stature,  to- 


EBSMBZEB  BAII.KY.  21 

with  his  somewhat  peculiar  style  of  dress,  would  at  once  cause 
him  to  be  singled  out  in  a  crowd.  His  features  were  decided  and 
strongly  marked,  and  denoted  power  and  force  of  character;  while 
his  t-ye  was  expressive  of  a  kind  and  tender  nature.  A  hard  worker 
while  he  worked,  no  one  enjoyed  more  the  hour  of  leisure,  a  pleasant 
talk  with  his  friends,  or  a  merry  romp  with  his  children. 

Thus  happily  and  usefully  the  busy  years  fled  on.  Blessed  witli 
health  and  prosperity,  almost  idolized  by  his  scholars,  surrounded  by 
a  circle  of  true  and  noble  hearted  friends,  men  and  women  of  talent 
and  refinement,  happy  in  his  family  and  home — his  cup  of  earthly 
blessings  seemed  indeed  to  be  full  and  running  over.  But  a  change 
was  near  at  hand ;  misfortune  overtook  him  suddenly,  and  from  every 
quarter ;  so  that  to  use  his  own  expressive  words,  it  needed  not  the 
assurance  of  Holy  Writ  to  convince  him,  "  that  man  is  born  unto 
trouble,  as  the  sparks  fly  upward.'' 

The  crisis  of  1837  is  doubtless  well  remembered.  Mr.  Bailey  suf- 
fered heavy  losses  in  the  general  panic  and  pressure  from  the  failure 
of  those  who  owed  him,  to  meet  their  engagements,  and  from  the 
withdrawal  of  patronage  from  his  school.  At  the  same  time,  he  was 
deprived  of  the  income  of  his  books,  through  the  failure  of  his  pub- 
lishers. His  current  expenses  had  always  been  great;  for  he  had 
always  spent  freely  so  long  as  he  had  means,  and  had  been  generous 
almost  to  a  fault;  and  the  crash  found  him  with  his  resources  crip- 
pled, and  totally  unprepared  to  meet  the  storm. 

In  this  emergency  he  acted  promptly  and  decidedly.  lie  at  once 
broke  up  his  establishment  in  Boston,  disposing  of  every  superfluous 
article,  including  even  the  greater  part  of  his  large  and  valuable 
library,  and  determined  to  relinquish  his  connection  with  the  Young 
Ladies'  High  School,  and  to  open  a  private  school  for  boys  in  the 
country.  But  his  troubles  had  not  reached  their  climax.  The  gen- 
tleman who  purchased  the  good-will  and  fixtures  of  the  school,  died 
suddenly  of  brain  fever,  after  the  papers  had  been  signed  and  before 
the  first  payment  was  made,  leaving  his  estate  utterly  insolvent.  Mr. 
Bailey  was  almost  ruined  by  this  event ;  yet  he  was  not  crushed  by 
it,  as  a  weaker  nature  might  have  been.  His  warmest  sympathy  as  a 
man  and  a  Christian  was  at  once  excited  for  the  family  thus  suddenly 
rendered  desolate ;  and  he  endeavored  as  much  as  possible  to  arrange 
matters  for  their  benefit,  and  was  never  heard  to  utter  a  word  of  re- 
proach in  reference  to  the  whole  matter. 

Having  settled  up  his  affairs  as  well  as  possible,  Mr.  Bailey  opened 
his  school  for  boys  in  the  following  summer  at  Roxbury,  feeling  that 
he  was  indeed  a  poor  man  and  had  the  world  to  begin  over  again,  but 


22  EBENEZER  BAILEY. 

going  to  work  with  a  brave  heart  and  a  cheerful  spirit.  The  school 
was  intended  to  be  select  and  of  a  high  character,  and  the  number 
was  limited  to  twenty,  all  of  whom  were  engaged  to  enter  at  the 
time  of  his  death.  Should  this  sketch  come  to  the  notice  of  any  of 
those  who  then  had  the  privilege  of  being  his  pupils,  they  will 
readily  recall  the  delightful  relations  subsisting  between  him  and 
them.  At  once  friend  and  teacher,  they  not  only  sought  his  counsel 
in  their  studies,  but  in  all  their  sports  and  amusements.  No  expedi- 
tion was  quite  complete  without  his  presence.  They  loved  him  as  a 
father,  and  their  grief  at  his  death  was  deep  and  uncontrollable. 

In  the  spring  of  1839,  he  removed  to  Lynn,  and  rented  the  estate, 
then  known  as  "  Lynn  Mineral  Spring" — but  now  as  the  elegant  seat 
of  Hon.  Richard  Fay — "  Linmere."  In  this  charming  spot,  he  seemed 
to  breathe  a  freer  life  and  air.  The  wild  and  romantic  scenery  on 
the  shores  of  that  beautiful  pond,  might  well  satisfy  the  most  ardent 
lover  of  nature,  while  his  tasteful  hand  found  abundant  and  pleasing 
occupation  in  arranging  the  grounds,  and  bringing  order  out  of  con- 
fusion. Never  had  he  seemed  so  perfectly  happy,  never  did  life  seem 
to  open  such  noble  aims.  He  was  content  to  live  simply  and  to  work 
hard,  that  he  might  thus  be  enabled  to  discharge  every  obligation  he 
had  incurred ;  and  a  long,  happy,  and  useful  career  seemed  opening 
bright  before  him.  But  the  end  was  drawing  nigh. 

One  sultry  afternoon  in  mid-summer — Friday,  July  26th, — coming 
hastily  into  the  house,  he  stepped  on  a  large  nail  with  such  force,  that 
it  ran  its  whole  length  through  his  boot  into  his  foot.  Entering  the 
house,  he  drew  it  out  with  some  effort,  and  handing  it  to  his  wife, 
said,  "  lay  that  away,  there  may  be  a  sad  tale  to  tell  of  it."  It  is  a 
little  singular  that  he  had  always  had  a  peculiar  dread,  almost  an  in- 
stinctive horror  of  the  lock-jaw.  With  this  feeling,  no  time  was  lost 
in  applying  the  proper  remedies,  and  in  consulting  the  best  medical 
advice  at  hand.  He  also  consulted  Dr.  Hayward  of  Boston,  formerly 
his  family  physician,  and  nothing  that  could  be  done,  was  neglected ; 
though  after  a  few  days,  the  pain  and  inflammation  had  so  much  sub- 
sided, that  it  was  hoped  by  his  family  that  their  apprehensions  of 
danger  were  groundless. 

On  Saturday,  the  ninth  day  after  the  accident,  the  summer  vaca- 
tion commenced,  and  most  of  his  scholars  departed  for  home.  He 
took  leave  of  them  pleasantly  and  cheerfully,  giving  each  a  kind 
word,  and  then  sat  at  his  desk  the  rest  of  the  morning  busily  engaged 
in  writing.  It  was  afterwards  found  that  he  was  occupied  in  arrang- 
ing his  papers,  and  leaving  directions  for  the  guidance  of  his  family 
in  case  of  his  death.  At  dinner  he  appeared  composed  and  calm 


EBENEZER  BAILEY.  23 

and  cheerful  as  usual,  but  it  was  noticed  he  did  not  eat.  To  the 
anxious  inquiry  as  to  the  cause,  he  acknowledged,  slowly  and 
reluctantly,  as  if  unwilling  to  give  pain,  that  he  did  have  "  a  sort  of 
tightness  about  his  jaws,  but  perhaps  it  was  only  fancy."  Who  can 
picture  the  horror  and  dismay  of  that  moment  ?  A  physician  was 
immediately  sent  for,  and  powerful  remedies  applied.  The  hope  was 
still  cherished  that  he  might  escape,  but  in  the  night,  he  was  seized 
with  severe  pain  and  stricture  across  his  chest,  and  much  against  his 
will,  his  wife  insisted  on  rousing  the  family  and  again  sending  for  Dr. 
Peirson  of  Salem.  He  insisted  on  dressing  and  coming  down  stairs, 
"it  seemed  too  much  like  being  sick  to  stay  up  stairs."  Almost 
always  in  vigorous  health,  he  hardly  knew  the  meaning  of  the  word 
sick  ;  and  now  as  he  sat  conversing  on  various  interesting  subjects, 
more  thoughtful  of  others  than  of  himself,  it  was  hard  for  those 
around,  to  realize  his  danger ;  but  he  did  fully  and  completely.  In 
the  same  composed  way  he  met  his  physician,  apologizing  for  the 
trouble  he  had  put  him  to,  in  calling  him  up  at  midnight.  It  was 
afterwards  told  how  calmly  he  had  inquired  into  the  probable  effect 
of  an  amputation,  and  how  with  equal  calmness  he  received  the  an- 
swer, "Too  late."  At  three  o'clock  Sunday  morning,  only  twenty- 
four  hours  before  his  death,  he  walked  slowly  up  stairs  with  the 
assistance  of  his  cane — never,  alas !  to  descend  alive. 

The  next  day  was  a  bright  and  beautiful  Sabbath.  Gay  flowers 
were  blooming,  and  sweet  birds  were  singing,  each  noted  in  turn  by 
the  sick  man.  Powerful  opiates  had  been  administered  to  relieve  the 
pain,  but  in  vain.  lie  was  able,  however,  to  swallow  liquids  through 
the  day ;  though  when  one  of  his  little  children  anxiously  asked  him 
if  his  jaws  had  locked  any  more,  he  seemed  to  brace  himself  up  and 
nerve  himself  to  answer,  "I  think  they  are;  it  comes  on  slow  but 
Tory  sure."  The  most  skillful  physicians  were  summoned ;  anxious 
friends  and  relatives  gathered  to  the  house  of  sorrow.  To  each,  in 
the  intervals  of  the  paroxysms  of  pain  which  grew  more  and  more 
severe,  he  addressed  a  kindly  word,  sending  flowers  to  one,  and  mes- 
sages of  affection  to  another.  In  the  presence  of  his  family  he  was 
calm,  but  in  their  absence,  his  anxiety  for  their  fate,  thus  left  alone  in 
the  world,  was  uncontrollable — "  Oh  God !"  he  cried,  "  what  will 
become  of  my  poor  wife  and  children  ?" 

And  so  the  weary  day  wore  on.  As  the  sun  set,  he  seemed 
drowsy,  it  was  difficult  to  rouse  him  to  take  his  medicine.  It  was  but 
the  precursor  of  the  last,  long  sleep.  The  disease  mercifully  went  to 
the  brain  rather  than  to  the  spine,  as  had  been  feared,  and  there  the 
strong  man  lay  in  an  unconscious  stupor,  breathing  out  his  rich  lifa 


24  EBENEZER  BAILEY. 

in  deep  groans  of  agony.  That  ear  which  had  ever  been  open  to  the 
voice  of  suffering,  was  now  deaf  to  the  cries  and  entreaties  of  his 
loved  ones  to  give  them  one  last  word,  one  last  sign.  The  life  was 
slowly  ebbing  from  the  stout,  loving  heart, — 

;'  And  when  the  sun  in  all  his  state, 

Illumed  the  eastern  skies  ; 
lie  passed  through  Glory's  Morning  gate, 

And  walked  in  Paradise." 

Of  Mr.  Bailey's  character  as  a  man  and  as  a  teacher,  others  will  be 
allowed  to  speak.  As  a  husband  and  a  father,  who  can  tell  his  worth  ? 
To  that  family  of  five  young  children,  the  memory  of  their  dead 
father,  of  his  wishes  and  hopes,  of  his  words  and  instruction — has 
been  as  fresh  and  binding,  and  more  sacred  than  that  of  many  a 
living  parent.  And  in  all  the  blessings  of  their  after  life,  they  have 
ever  felt  that  their  richest  inheritance  has  been  to  call  themselves  his 
children.  His  wife  too,  having  lost  the  strong  arm  she  had  hitherto 
leaned  upon,  nobly  discharged  the  double  duty  now  devolving  on  her, 
and  bent  every  energy  and  devoted  all  her  strength  to  the  task  of 
rearing  these  children,  as  he  would  have  them  reared. 

His  friends  were  deeply  stirred  by  his  death.  During  his  long  resi- 
dence in  Boston,  his  uniform  courtesy  and  dignity  of  bearing,  and  his 
kind  and  unaffected  regard  for  the  welfare  of  others,  had  won  him 
many  friends,  from  every  walk  in  life.  After  the  first  shock  of  grief, 
Ihese  true  friends  began  to  inquire  into  the  best  way  of  showing  their 
love  and  regard  for  the  memory  of  him  who  was  gon'e.  And  they 
most  liberally  and  wisely  decided  to  subscribe  a  sufficient  sum  to  free 
the  copy-rights  of  the  books  which  he  had  published,  from  the  en- 
cumbrances upon  them,  and  thus  secure  a  sure  provision  for  the 
education  of  his  children. 

Those  who  so  long  had  sat  under  his  watch-care  and  instruction, 
heard  of  his  sudden  and  most  unlocked  for  death  with  sorrow  and  dis- 
may. But  one  voice  went  up  from  among  them,  that  of  anguish, 
mingled  with  sympathy.  The  following  lines,  being  a  portion  of  a 
poem  on  his  death  by  one  of  his  pupils,  may  not  be  inappropriate  or 
unacceptable ; — 

"  Not  I  alone  deplore  thy  hapless  fate, 

Thou  good  and  gifted,  generous  and  great ! 

She,  that  sad  mourner  by  thy  silent  bier, 

Shedding  in  speechless  grief,  the  frequent  tear  5 

And  they,  whose  names  dwelt  latest  on  thy  tongue, 

O'er  whom  a  father's  shield  of  love  was  flung, — 

Their  depth  of  woe  His  might  alone  can  scan 

Whose  eye  beams  love,  whose  voice  "  speaks  peace  "  to  man. 


EBENEZER  BAILEY.  26 

Rest  thee  in  peace  !   thou  tired  and  trusty  friend  ! 

Shall  we  in  hopeless  grief  around  thee  bend  ? 

Oft  have  thy  smiles  the  sorrowing  heart  made  glad, 

Thy  presence  cheered  the  doubting  and  the  sad. 

In  many  a  heart  thy  monument  is  reared, 

Whose  grateful  thoughts  record  thy  name  revered, 

Each  princely  deed  though  done  in  secrecy, 

Shall  rise  to  heaven,  and  thy  memorial  be. 

Thy  soul  shall  enter  its  immortal  rest, — 

Home  of  the  weary — guerdon  of  the  blest !" 

Many  obituary  notices  appeared  in  the  papers  of  the  day,  from 
which  the  following  is  selected  from  the  "Salem  Gazette"  August 
13th,  1839.  What  friend  wrote  it,  is  not  known  to  his  family. 

"So  many  tender  and  affecting  recollections  crowd  upon  the  mind, 
in  contemplating  the  sudden  close  of  a  life  of  such  varied  usefulness 
and  excellence,  that  words  utterly  fail  to  express  the  overwhelming 
grief  which  has  been  brought  into  his  own  family,  the  deep  sorrow 
which  will  be  felt  by  so  many  other  families  of  which  he  was  the 
honored  and  beloved  friend,  or  the  strong  feeling  of  sadness  and 
sympathy  which  his  death  will  occasion  in  the  community  of  which 
he  was  so  long  a  valued  citizen. 

Of  Mr.  Bailey's  scientific  and  literary  attainments — of  his  high 
reputation  as  an  instructor,  of  the  untiring  industry  which  led  him  to 
occupy  the  intervals  of  responsible  and  exhausting  professional  duty 
in  the  preparation  of  many  valuable  works  in  science  and  literature, 
of  the  energy  and  fidelity  with  which  for  several  years  he  discharged 
the  duties  of  a  member  of  the  city  government  of  Boston,  of  his 
various  usefulness  in  his  relations  to  society,  we  have  not  time  or  in- 
clination now  to  speak.  They  are  well  known  to  that  community  of 
which  he  was  so  long  a  member. 

But  it  is  of  the  virtues  of  his  heart,  it  is  of  the  qualities  that  make 
the  true  man,  which  he  so  eminently  possessed,  on  which  we  would 
for  a  moment,  dwell. 

Mr.  Bailey  had  a  noble  soul,  a  soul  which  disdained  everything 
mean  and  base,  and  which  had  an  instinctive  admiration  for  every- 
thing elevated  and  excellent.  He  had  a  strong  love  of  honesty  and 
truth.  Sincerity  and  frankness  characterized  his  whole  intercourse 
with  others,  lie  carried  his  heart  in  his  hand.  He  was  not  willing 
that  anybody  should  take  him  for  better  or  wiser  than  he  actually 
was.  lie  possessed  an  ardent  temperament,  but  it  was  united  with  a 
spirit  of  feminine  gentleness.  He  entered  with  zeal  and  animation 
into  every  scheme  for  the  benefit  of  his  fellow  men,  but  he  never  gave 
way  to  any  popular  impulse,  or  thought  any  plan  or  project  a  useful 


26  EBENEZER  BAILEY. 

one  simply  because  it  happened  to  be  fashionable.  His  constitutional 
ardor,  his  benevolent  feelings,  his  gentle  temper,  united  with  his 
vivacity  and  playful  wit,  rendered  him  the  delight  of  the  social  circle. 
Benignity  sat  upon  his  countenance.  He  was  liberal,  almost  to  a 
fault.  He  never  thought  of  himself,  when  he  could  serve  another  by 
self-forgetfulness  or  self-denial.  He  professed  a  firm  belief  in  Unita- 
rian Christianity,  and  his  practice  attested  the  sincerity  of  his  profes- 
sion. What  he  was,  in  short,  as  a  husband,  a  father,  a  brother,  and 
a  friend,  those  best  can  tell,  who  feel  that  their  loss  in  these  relations, 
is  irreparable. 

This  may  seem  excessive  eulogium  to  those  who  did  not  know  the 
man.  But  it  is  the  heart-felt  tribute  of  one  who  was  the  friend  of 
his  youth,  and  who  has  watched  with  the  interest  of  a  friend,  his  on- 
ward career  of  goodness  and  usefulness.  Its  fidelity  will  be  attested 
by  the  voice  of  that  community  of  which  he  was  a  citizen,  and  by 
the  thousands  of  young  hearts  who  will  tearfully  acknowledge  that 
they  owe  to  him  their  highest  intellectual  attainments  and  the 
development  of  the  best  principles  and  feelings  that  make  up  their 
character.'' 

We  are  happy  to  be  able  to  close  this  too  imperfect  sketch  of  so 
useful  a  life,  by  the  testimony  of  three  of  his  near  and  dear  friends, 
each  of  whom  was  situated  in  circumstances  peculiarly  favorable,  for 
forming  a  correct  estimate  of  his  character  as  seen  from  different 
stand-points. 

The  first  is  from  his  pastor  and  beloved  friend,  the  Rev.  John  Pier- 
pont;  who  knew  him  long  and  well,  under  every  varying  circum- 
stance of  life.  He  writes  as  follows,  under  the  date  of  August 
14th,  1859. 

"  When  I  say  that  Mr.  Bailey  was  a  member  of  my  family  six  or 
seven  years ;  that  in  all  that  time,  he  had  his  seat  at  the  table  next 
to  me,  on  my  right  hand ;  that  I  thus  "  wintered  him  and  summered 
him ;"  that  for  a  part,  at  least,  of  that  time,  some  of  my  children 
were  under  his  instruction ;  and  that  I  was  a  member  of  the  School 
Committee  all  the  time  he  was  in  the  service  of  the  city,  first  as  mas- 
ter of  the  Franklin  School,  and  afterwards  as  the  first  and  only  prin- 
cipal of  the  High  School  for  girls,  it  may  well  be  supposed  that  I 
had  opportunities  of  acquiring  some  knowledge  of  his  character. 

The  routine  of  a  public  teacher's  professional  duties,  presents  but 
few  salient  points  for  his  biographer.  Yet  I  think  that  there  is  no 
vocation  in  society  that  affords  a  more  trying  field  of  labor,  or  a  better 
one  for  gaining  a  knowledge  of  human  nature,  or  for  the  improve- 
ment of  the  whole  character  of  the  individual,  than  that  of  a  teacher 


EBENEZER  BAILEY.  27 

of  a  large  common  school.  And,  taking  into  view  his  fidelity  to  his 
trust,  his  full  acquaintance  with  the  matters  to  be  taught,  his  entire 
self-control  under  exciting  circumstances,  his  perfect  impartiality  in 
the  administration  of  law,  the  facility,  and  the  wonderful  felicity  with 
which  he  secured  the  attachment  and  unqualified  confidence  of  his 
pupils,  the  invincible  patience  with  which  he  treated  either  willfulness 
or  dullness  in  the  objects  of  his  care ;  the  wisdom  with  which  he 
adjusted  discipline  to  character,  when  discipline  must  be  administered, 
in  one  word,  when  I  consider  all  the  qualities  that  go  to  the  making 
up  of  the  perfect  teacher,  I  think  that  Ebenezer  Bailey  was  the 
nearest  perfect  teacher  that  I  have  ever  known.  More  exciting  to  me 
than  to  witness  a  trial  of  two  generous  steeds,  with  all  the  blood  of 
all  the  Morgans  in  their  veins,  was  it  to  see,  as  I  have  seen,  in  the 
High  School  for  girls,  even  in  moments  of  "recess,"  two  of  those 
girls  of  fourteen  or  fifteen  years  of  age,  stand  up  side  by  side,  before 
the  great  blackboard,  and  "  merely  for  the  fun  of  it,"  with  the  same 
algebraical  problem  in  hand,  race  "  neck  and  neck  "  down  the  board, 
to  see  which  should  reach  the  answer  first !  No  one,  I  think,  could 
witness  that  spectacle  "in  play-time"  without  coming  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  genius  loci — the  spirit  that  presided  over  that  school, 
was  not  one  that  haunted  every  academic  grove. 

And  what  was  the  consequence  ?  So  popular  did  that  school  be- 
come, so  strongly  had  it  taken  hold  of  the  affections  of  the  people 
while  yet  in  its  infancy,  such  a  perfect  furore  had  it  excited  at  the 
time  when  the  first  class  that  entered  it  was  to  take  leave  of  it,  that, 
as  was  supposed,  the  jealousy  of  the  aristocracy  of  the  city  was 
awakened — "  tantane  animis  coslcstibus  ira  /" — the  knowledge  that, 
at  the  public  expense,  the  daughters  of  plebeians  could  secure  a  higher 
education  than  those  of  the  patricians  could,  at  whatever  cost,  was 
fatal  to  the  school  itself.  One  High  School  for  girls  could  not  con- 
tain all  that  were  eager  to  press  into  it.  Even  could  ten  Master 
Baileys  be  found,  ten  High  Schools  would  not  be  sustained  by  those 
by  whom  the  public  burdens  were  principally  borne,  and  because  not 
enough  could  be  done  in  this  line,  to  meet  the  public  demand,  it  was 
determined  to  do  nothing  at  all !  The  school  was  discontinued.  The 
enterprise  of  a  High  School  for  girls  in  Boston  became  a  failure  by 
reason  of  its  triumphant  success ! 

I  never  recall  the  image  of  Mr.  Bailey,  but  with  a  melancholy 
pleasure.  Like  Ossian's  "  memory  of  joys  that  are  past,"  the 
thought  of  him  is  always  pleasant,  but  mournful  to  the  soul.  In  all 
the  years  during  which  we  sat  side  by  side  at  my  table,  I  never  saw 
in  him  a  little  thing.  Large,  generous,  manly,  in  all  his  views  and 


28  EDENEZER  BAILEY. 

ways,  he  always  commanded  my  respect  for  him  as  a  man,  and  my 
affection  for  him  as  a  friend.  During  all  that  time,  I  think  I  may  say 
with  literal  truth,  never  an  unkind  word  passed  between  him  and  any 
one  member  of  my  family.  He  had  a  merry  wit  and  knew  how  to 
give  and  take  a  "joke,"  but  never  gave  or  took  offense.  We  all 
loved  him.  We  loved  him  after  he  left  our  family,  and  began  to 
ouild  up  his  own.  We  all  felt,  and  deeply  deplored  his  too  early 
death.  "  Too  early  ?" — No.  HE  "  who  doeth  all  things  well "  never 
sends  his  angel,  Death,  to  call  any  one  of  his  children  home  too 
early.  '  The  righteous  perisheth,  and  no  man  layeth  it  to  heart ;  and 
merciful  men  are  taken  away,  none  considering  that  the  righteous  are 
taken  away  from  the  evil  to  come.'  " 

The  following  is  from  a  lady,  for  several  years  associated  with  Mr. 
Bailey  in  the  Young  Ladies'  High  School,  of  rare  talents,  and  known 
on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  for  her  philanthropic  labors,  and  her 
literary  efforts.  Educated  in  England,  and  spending  a  great  portion 
of  her  subsequent  life  on  the  continent,  her  views  possess  a  double 
value,  as  being  the  conclusions  of  a  large  and  liberal  mind,  and  as 
also  showing  the  strong  and  lasting  influence  exerted  by  Mr.  Bailey 
over  those  with  whom  he  was  once  brought  in  contact.  Writing 
under  the  date  of  September  1st,  1859,  she  says : — 

"My  mind  is  profoundly  stirred  by  the  information  that  a  memoir 
of  Mr.  Bailey  is  about  being  prepared.  No  one  will  read  it  with  a 
deeper  interest  than  myself,  for  no  one  more  truly  appreciated  his 
educational  influence,  or  has  been  more  greatly  benefited  by  it.  That 
wonderfully  influential  faculty  was  in  him  a  thing  apart  and  unlike 
any  power  of  the  kind  I  ever  saw  in  another.  It  combined  all  the 
qualifications  that  go  to  make  up  the  high  military  genius.  It  was 
at  once  exact  and  enthusiastic ;  scientific  and  imaginative.  Without 
ever  having  pronounced  the  words,  '  Woman's  Rights.' — he  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  broadest  and  truest  woman's  rights,  for  New  Eng- 
land. The  contest  he  maintained  with  the  mayor  of  Boston,  in 
behalf  of  the  daughters  of  Boston,  and  the  manner  in  which  he 
asserted  their  right  to  a  high  public  instruction,  did  a  work  which 
will  never  die  out  in  New  England,  but  which  will  be  communicated 
with  unceasing  power  from  age  to  age. 

I  remember  many  of  his  judgments  given  in  the  spirit  of  an  ob- 
server of  the  nicest  qualifications  both  philosophical  and  physiologi- 
cal, and  in  the  happiest  popular  manner.  It  was  always  his  way  to 
settle  a  question,  rather  than  debate  it.  Of  the  comparative  powers 
of  girls  and  boys  as  students,  of  which  he  was  so  amply  qualified  to 
judge  by  his  great  experience  in  teaching  both,  he  said,  '  girls  beat 


EBENE2EK  BAILEY.  29 

boys  of  the  same  age,  at  the  same  literary  and  mathematical  studies, 
but  they  cry  over  them  more."  This  remark  covers  the  whole  ground 
of  difference  of  organization. 

I  should  never  be  weary  of  telling  of  his  unequaled  method,  by 
which,  as  a  general  reviewing  and  employing  an  army,  he  could  deal 
with  hundreds  like  one — of  his  inspiring  sympathy,  of  his  skill  in 
imparting  instruction,  of  his  bounty  in  gratuitously  bestowing  it  on 
the  deserving.  He  knew  of  no  infantine  or  feminine  road  to  learn- 
ing, any  more  than  a  royal  one ;  and  that  unconsciousness  has  been  a 
Messing  to  thousands  of  the  New  England  youth  of  both  sexes,  whom 
he  knew  how  to  stimulate  and  inspire  with  his  own  profound  sense  of 
realities,  and  hatred  of  pretence,  cant,  and  sentimentalistn. 

May  the  time  soon  come,  when  such  men  may  look  to  the  presi- 
dency of  Harvard,  Yale,  and  other  kindred  institutions,  as  the  natural 
reward  of  their  educational  labors  and  the  natural  field  for  ever- 
renewed  exertions.  Happy  indeed,  would  be  that  literary  insti- 
tution, that  could  secure  the  services  of  such  a  man  as  EBENEZER 
BAILEY  !" 

We  will  conclude  with  the  letter  before  alluded  to,  of  his  brother- 
in-law,  the  Hon.  Allen  W.  Dodge.  This  letter  is  dated  March  27th, 
1861,  and  will  be  especially  appreciated  by  those  who  know  Mr. 
Dodge's  cool,  clear  judgment  and  keenness  of  discernment.  The 
analysis  which  he  gives  of  Mr.  Bailey's  character  and  mental  habits, 
is  peculiarly  valuable,  and  will  be  acknowledged  by  his  friends  to  be 
a  tribute  to  his  memory  no  less  just,  than  grateful. 

"My  first  acquaintance  with  the  late  Ebenezer  Bailey,  commenced 
somewhere  about  the  year  1820,  when  he  was  teaching  in  Newbury- 
port.  His  success  here  was  very  flattering,  and  he  soon  received  an 
appointment  as  head-master  of  the  Franklin  Grammar  School,  Bos- 
ton. He  at  once  entered  on  his  duties  in  this  new  position,  and 
taught  there  with  great  and  increasing  success  for  several  years. 
Afti-rwards  he  was  appointed  principal  of  the  High  School  for  girls 
in  that  city,  an  institution  that  owed  its  establishment  mainly  to  his 
advocacy  of  it  in  the  journals  of  the  day. 

Under  his  management,  the  experiment — for  it  was  the  first 
attempt  of  the  kind  in  New  England — became  a  success,  and  the 
daughters  of  the  humblest  citizen  here  received  at  the  public  expense, 
an  education  as  thorough  and  as  valuable,  as  could  otherwise  be  ob- 
tained only  at  great  cost,  and  by  a  favored  few.  But  this  did  not 
avail  to  save  the  school  from  an  untimely  end ;  indeed  it  was  per- 
haps the  chief  cause  of  its  destruction.  Mr.  Bailey  always  main- 
tained that  this  was  accomplished  by  the  influence  of  Josiah  Quincy 


30  EBENEZER  BAILEY. 

Sen.,  who  was  then  mayor  of  Boston,  and  publicly  proclaimed  this 
conviction  in  a  pamphlet  of  marked  ability,  in  which  he  sharply  re- 
viewed mayor  Quincy's  proceedings. 

On  resigning  his  position  as  head  master  of  the  High  School  for 
girls,  he  immediately  opened  a  private  school  for  young  ladies  in 
Boston.  To  rehearse  the  history  of  the  '  Young  Ladies'  High  School,' 
would  be  to  tell  the  early  history  of  many  of  the  finest  minds  that 
have  graced  our  New  England  homes  or  adorned  her  literature,  for 
the  last  quarter  of  a  century.  But  in  schools  as  in  every  thing  else, 
'  the  fashion  thereof  passeth  away,'  and  this  circumstance,  together 
with  the  general  stagnation  of  business  during  the  great  panic  of 
1837,  led  him  to  quit  the  scene  of  his  greenest  laurels,  and  of  so 
many  pleasant  associations,  and  to  open  a  home  boarding  school  for 
boys  in  a  retired  and  romantic  spot,  then  known  as  the  '  Mineral 
Spring,'  in  Lynn,  Massachusetts. 

The  chief  cause  of  this  great  change  of  life  in  Mr.  Bailey,  was  the 
pecuniary  embarrassments  that  had  now  overtaken  him.  His  school 
had  been  carried  on  in  a  style  regardless  of  expense ;  the  best 
teachers,  the  best  equipments,  the  best  of  every  thing  needed  for  its 
success,  were  always  procured,  if  possible.  His  own  style  of  living 
too,  had  been  on  the  most  liberal  scale ;  for  one  of  his  means,  he 
lived  like  a  prince,  not,  however,  for  his  own  selfish  enjoyment.  Large 
and  extravagant  entertainments  were  positively  distasteful  to  him, 
but  his  every-day  hospitality  was  unbounded.  His  house,  his  table, 
his  books,  and  his  purse  were  always  open  to  his  friends,  and  no  man 
had  warmer  or  truer  friends.  So,  finding  himself  unable  to  keep  up 
the  expense  of  a  city  home  according  to  his  ideal,  he  withdrew  to  the 
simpler  life  of  the  country. 

Hardly,  however,  had  his  new  career  opened  before  him,  when  he 
was  suddenly  stricken  down  with  that  dreadful  disease,  the  lock-jaw. 
I  was  with  him  during  the  last  sad  days  of  his  life.  He  knew  the  peril 
he  was  in  and  took  all  known  precautions,  under  the  best  of  medical 
advice  and  skill,  to  escape  it.  But  all  in  vain — the  strong  man  bowed 
before  the  fell  destroyer.  During  the  intervals  of  paroxysms  of  pain, 
he  was  calm,  resigned,  and  even  cheerful.  On  observing  to  him  the 
mysterious  nature  of  his  disease,  a  mere  incision  of  the  nerves  by  a 
nail — and  the  whole  system  deranged,  'I  Avas  just  thinking'  he 
replied,  '  of  those  beautiful  lines  of  Dr.  Watts,' 

'  Strange  that  a  harp  of  a  thousand  strings, 
Should  keep  in  tune  so  long !' 

lie  then  spoke  of  his  approaching  death  with  the  same  calmness — 


EBENEZER  BAILEY.  31 

spoke  of  it,  and  of  his  happy  family  so  soon  to  be  bereaved.  Never 
was  a  tenderer  husband  and  father,  and  to  leave  his  wife  with  shattered 
health,  those  five  little  children  needing  more  than  a  mother's  care — 
this  was  the  bitterest  drop  in  his  cup  of  agony — which  absorbed  all 
the  rest.  On  assuring  him  that  I  would  endeavor  to  be  to  them  a 
father  and  a  protector,  he  grasped  me  firmly  by  the  hand  saying, 
'  Then  I  can  die  in  peace.'  And  so  this  friend  of  his  race,  this  man 
of  letters  and  of  wisdom,  this  illustrious  teacher  of  the  youth  of  his 
time,  passed  away  from  earth ;  but  the  good  that  he  did,  lives  after 
him,  and  will  yet  live  through  many  generations. 

To  me  his  memory  is  as  fresh  as  if  were  but  yesterday  he  was 
here.  His  noble  form,  his  commanding  stature,  his  broad,  manly 
chest;  his  strongly  marked  features,  seem  yet  present  before  me.  I 
hear  his  sonorous  voice,  his  well-articulated  words,  his  cheerful  and 
contagious  laugh,  so  hearty  and  spirit-stirring.  I  listen  to  the  anec- 
dote he  relates  with  such  spirit  and  interest  to  illustrate  some  point  in 
our  conversation.  I  hear  his  clear  and  simple  explanation  of  some 
scientific  fact  or  law  of  nature.  For  the  study  of  these,  he  had  a 
great  passion.  Astronomy,  chemistry,  botany  and  the  natural 
sciences  generally,  were  known  to  him,  not  as  a  dry  series  of 
names  and  formulas,  but  as  practical  truths  to  be  applied  to  every  day 
life. 

As  a  scholar  his  learning  was  varied,  extensive  and  thorough. 
Always  a  student,  he  scorned  to  pretend  to  knowledge  which  he  did 
not  possess.  Least  of  all  did  he  make  a  parade  of  his  learning.  In 
pure  mathematics  he  was  eminently  an  adept.  As  a  poet,  he  held  no 
mean  rank,  even  in  New  England.  His  ear  was  quick  to  detect  an 
error  of  rhythm,  or  a  word  mispronounced.  His  sense  of  grammatical 
construction  was  as  unerring  as  an  instinct.  Indeed,  if  he  had  one 
favorite  study  more  than  another,  it  was  philology.  His  library  pos- 
sessed a  rare  and  valuable  collection  of  standard  authorities  on  the 
use  of  language ;  and  his  critical  eye  and  taste  filled  the  margins  of 
the  books  he  read  with  notes  and  queries.  His  literary  taste  was  nice 
and  discriminating,  cultivated  by  long  and  patient  discipline,  and  re- 
markably free  from  all  capriciousness.  His  style  of  writing  was  clear 
and  simple,  yet  always  fresh  and  vigorous;  and  had  he  devoted  him- 
self to  literature,  he  would  have  been  as  widely  known  as  an  author, 
as  he  now  is  as  a  teacher.  In  this  respect,  I  can  not  speak  of  his 
character  from  personal  knowledge.  The  illustrations  of  his  success 
are  to  be  found  in  the  hundreds  of  young  persons  educated  by  him, 
and  living  witnesses  of  his  power  over  the  mind  and  the  heart.  I  am 
persuaded  that  not  one  of  these  would  fail  to  bear  testimony  to  his 


32  EBENEZER  BAILEY. 

faithful,  devoted,  and  enthusiastic  endeavors  to  promote  their  growth 
in  knowledge  and  in  virtue. 

But  it  is  as  a  man  and  a  friend,  as  a  companion  in  social  intercourse, 
that  I  would  essay  to  present  him  to  the  teachers  of  the  present  day. 
I  knew  him  intimately  for  twenty  years ;  most  of  that  time  I  was  with 
him  more  or  less,  and  for  the  remainder  was  in  frequent  correspond- 
ence with  him.  1  never  knew  a  man  so  uniformly  cheerful,  often 
under  the  most  trying  circumstances,  so  kind  and  attentive  to  the 
feelings  and  the  happiness  of  others.  Full  of  interesting  knowledge, 
with  a  never-failing  vein  of  wit  and  vivacity,  he  at  once  charmed  and 
instructed.  And  he  \vas  ever  ready  himself  to  listen  to  others,  and 
be  instructed  by  them  in  turn.  He  never  carried  the  schoolmaster 
into  the  private  walks  of  life,  but  entered  warmly  and  appreciatingly 
into  the  topics  of  the  day,  and  imparted  fresh  interest  to  their  discus- 
sion. So  genial  his  disposition — so  open-hearted  and  free  from 
deceit — he  was  the  very  soul  of  honor  and  honesty  in  his  dealings 
with  others.  He  commanded  their  respect,  and  enjoyed  their  confi- 
dence, while  he  received  their  most  devoted  and  heart-felt  affection. 
In  all  my  intercourse  with  him,  I  never  knew  him  to  give  way  to  un- 
becoming anger,  or  to  utter  a  judgment  of  others,  that  he  would  wish 
unsaid.  He  was  deliberate  in  his  words  and  acts  to  a  remarkable 
degree.  His  temper,  though  warm,  was  under  the  most  perfect  con- 
trol, even  in  the  most  trying  circumstances.  He  was  tolerant  of  the 
religious  and  political  views  of  others,  however  much  they  might  dif- 
fer from  his  own.  While  a  firm  believer  himself  in  the  liberal  views 
of  Christianity,  he  held  in  high  esteem  the  members  of  all  other 
denominations,  and  in  return  received  their  confidence  and  support. 
No  man  had  a  deeper  respect  for  the  Bible  than  he,  or  had  more 
thoroughly  read  and  studied  its  sacred  pages. 

But  I  must  close  this  brief  sketch,  hardly  drawn  perhaps  with  suf- 
ficient distinctness  to  mark  the  individuality  of  one  with  whom  I  took 
sweet  counsel  in  the  earlier  part  of  my  life,  and  the  fragrance  of  whose 
memory  has  followed  me  along  its  subsequent  pathway,  and  will 
continue  with  me  to  its  end." 


Extracts  from  "Review  of  the  Mayor's  Report,1' 

PRINTED,    1828. 


HIGH  SCHOOL  FOR  GIRLS. 


The  Report  of  Mr.  Quincy  recommending  various  IMPROVEMENTS  in  our  system 
consists  of  three  parts, — as  it  relates  to  the  High  School  for  Girls,  the  Grammar 
and  "Writing  Schools,  and  the  Primary  Schools, — each  of  which  would  afford  mat- 
ter for  copious  remarks,  perhaps  for  severe  animadversion.  It  is  no  part  of  my 
plan,  however,  to  examine  his  project,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  what  he  calls,  by  way 
of  emphasis,  "the  Common  Schools."  But  having  been  appointed  by  the  School 
Committee  to  conduct  the  experiment  of  the  High  School  for  Girls, — having  devoted 
my  time  and  strength  and  all  my  energies  to  this  service  for  nearly  two  years, — and 
having  been  intimately  acquainted  with  the  whole  history  and  progress  of  the  in- 
stitution, I  feel  myself  called  upon  to  expose  the  fallacy  of  Mr.  Quincy's  arguments, 
by  which  he  would  satisfy  the  public  that  "  the  result  of  the  experiment  has  been 
an  entire  FAILURE  :" — that  such  an  institution  is  from  its  very  nature  "impracticable" 
in  this  city  I  This  renders  it  a  solemn  duty  to  disabuse  the  public  by  showing  them 
the  other  side  of  the  picture,  and,  moreover,  many  of  those  friends  whose  opinions 
I  am  most  accustomed  to  respect,  have  urged  this  duty  upon  me.  For  myself,  I 
need  not  say,  that  I  can  be  influenced  by  no  interested  motive, — my  present  position 
being  far  more  eligible  than  any  which  the  School  Committee  have  it  in  their  power 
to  bestow.  If,  therefore,  I  have  any  personal  interest  in  the  matter,  it  is  that  the 
High  School  for  Girls  should  be  discontinued. 

The  subject  requires  that  I  "  use  great  plainness  of  speech ;"  but  I  would  not 
willingly  forget  the  respect  due  to  one  who  "has  done  the  State  some  service," — 
more  especially  as  I  have  no  personal  animosity  towards  Mr.  Quincy.  In  this  dis- 
cussion, he  is  regarded  only  as  a  public  man,  intrusted  with  important  interests  by 
his  fellow  citizens,  and  exerting  an  active  and  powerful  influence  upon  the  institu- 
tions of  the  city.  The  extent  to  which  instruction  should  be  carried  at  the  public 
expense,  is  a  question  fairly  open  for  discussion  on  general  principles  ;  and  one  on 
which  intelligent  and  patriotic  men  may  very  honestly  entertain  different  opinions- 
Whether,  in  particular,  it  was  expedient  to  institute  the  High  School  for  Girls, — 
and  whether,  after  it  was  instituted,  it  ought  to  have  been  sustained, — are  questions 
worthy  of  a  free  investigation,  but  they  ought  to  be  met  in  a  manly,  open  and  in- 
genuous manner.  It  may  not  be  expedient  to  support  a  High  School  for  Girls, — 
but  it  is  expedient  that  the  citizens  be  correctly  informed  on  the  subject, — and  it  is 
not  right  that  the  institution  should  be  put  down  by  "  indirection."  I  do  not  com- 
plain of  Mr.  Quincy  that  ho  has  been  adverse  to  that  school,  from  the  very  <hiy 
when  it  was  first  proposed, — ho  had  an  unquestionable  right  to  be  opposed  to  the 
"experiment;" — but  I  do  complain  of  him  because  he  has  not  been  an  open  and 
generous  enemy  to  it, — because  he  has  not  pursued  a  course  worth}'  of  the  institu- 
tion, of  himself,  of  the  city  over  which  he  presides. 

The  people  of  Boston  have  been  accustomed  almost  to  venerate  their  public 
schools,  for  they  have  regarded  them  as  a  rich  inheritance  bequeathed  to  them  by 


36 

their  ancestors.  They  have  loved  these  institutions,  for  the  influence  they  have  ex- 
erted on  the  minds  and  manners  and  hearts  of  their  children ;  and  although  they 
have  never  supposed  their  schools  to  be  perfect,  still  they  have  been  proud  of  them. 
They  have  paid  liberally  and  with  a  willing  hand  for  their  support,  and  have  felt 
them  to  be  noble  monuments  of  an  enlightened  policy.  Nor  has  this  feeling  been 
confined  to  citizens  of  Boston  alone.  Their  system  of  free  schools  has  excited  the 
admiration  of  intelligent  strangers,  not  only  from  different  parts  of  our  own  country 
but  from  Europe,  and  has  been  regarded  as  a  model,  well  worthy  of  being  attentively 
studied.  It  is  not  generally  known  except  to  their  teachers,  how  often  the  public 
schools  of  this  city  are  visited  by  persons  from  abroad,  interested  in  the  subject  of 
education.  "While  the  High  School  for  Girls  was  in  operation,  it  was  thus  visited 
almost  daily.  It  happened  not  unfrequently,  that  many  gentlemen  were  present  at 
the  same  time,  who  had  come  from  different  and  from  distant  parts  of  the  country 
for  the  single  purpose  of  examining  the  methods  of  education  pursued  in  this  city. 
Among  these  were  often  to  be  seen  the  accredited  agents  of  public  institutions  from 
different  cities. 

Knowing  these  things,  it  was  with  a  feeling  of  mortification,— of  astonishment, — 
that  I  read  the  Report  of  Mr.  Quincy.  I  was  not  prepared  to  hear,  from  the  Chair- 
man of  the  School  Committee,  that  our  whole  system  of  public  education  is  radically 
wrong, — that  we  are  vastly  behind  the  age  in  this  respect, — and  that  our  schools 
are  so  essentially  defective,  that  their  present  arrangements  must  be  torn  up,  root 
and  branch,  to  make  way  for  a  new  organization.  No  one  will  deny  that  these 
schools  have  some  defects  which  demand  a  remedy.  But  these  are  merely  acciden- 
tal faults,  which  can  be  removed  without  destroying  the  integrity  of  the  whole  sys- 
tem,— a  system  which  has  been  advancing  towards  perfection,  under  the  fostering 
care  and  wisdom  of  successive  generations ;  and  which,  if  it  has  not  produced  many 
FRAXKLIXS,  has  at  least  rendered  the  population  of  Boston  proverbial  for  their  love 
of  order>  and  their  general  intelligence. 

It  is  true  the  free  schools  of  Boston  are  very  liberally  supported,  and  the  people 
wish  them  to  be  so.  They  do  not  complain  of  the  expense,  for  they  want  a  good 
education  for  their  children,  not  a  cheap  one.  Xo  doubt,  they  wish  their  rulers,  by 
a  prudent  and  economical  course  of  policy,  to  husband  well  the  resources  of  the 
city,  and  not  squander  them  on  extravagant  schemes  and  doubtful  speculations.  I 
speak  now  of  the  great  body  of  the  people,  upon  whom  the  public  burdens  fall  witli 
the  greatest  weight;  for  I  am  not  ignorant  there  are  some  individuals  who  think 
too  much  money  is  expended  for  the  schools.  I  have  heard  such  an  opinion  avowed 
by  more  than  one  member  of  the  City  Government, — and  by  no  one  else.  In  that 
quarter  it  has  been  said,  that  the  public  schools  should  be  merely  eleemosynary 
establishments,  where  nothing  but  the  lowest  elements  of  learning  should  be  doled 
out  to  the  children  of  poverty !  The  municipal  officer  who  avows  such  a  sentiment 
in  this  community,  must  be  respected,  at  least,  for  his  fairness  and  candor.  From 
such  a  man,  the  friends  of  a  liberal  system  of  education  have  nothing  to  fear,  for 
they  always  know  where  to  find  him.  But  it  is  from  those  who  hold  the  same 
opinion,  but  have  not  the  courage  to  avow  it, — from  those  who  would  reduce  the 
schools  from  then-  present  rank  by  "indirection," — that  real  danger  is  to  be  appre- 
hended. And  that  this  is  the  design  of  the  present  project  of  the  Mayor,  however 
it  may  be  disguised  and  glossed  over,  is  but  too  evident.  He  talks  much  indeed 
about  "  raising  the  standard  of  our  common  schools ;''  but  how  does  he  propose  to 
doit?  TVhy,  simply  by  adding  a  splendid  list  of  new  studio.*,  dismissing  half  the 


37 

present  teachers,  and  making  them  like  the  Monitorial  Schools  of  New  York !  Nothing 
could  be  easier.  Did  our  worthy  Mayor  ever  see  those  same  Monitorial  schools 
which  he  is  holding  up  to  our  view  as  models  ?  or  did  he  suppose  no  person  in  Bos- 
ton had  ever  seen  them  ? 

The  history  of  Mr.  Quincy's  Report  is  understood  to  be  as  follows:  After  I  had 
tendered  to  the  School  Committee  my  resignation  as  Master  of  the  High  School  for 
Girls,  a  sub-committee  was  raised  to  take  into  consideration  the  expediency  of 
continuing  the  school.  This  committee  made  a  report  early  in  the  month  of  Decem- 
ber, which  recommended  that  the  school  should  be  sustained.  Upon  the  question 
of  accepting  this  report,  the  committee  were  equally  divided ;  and  Mr.  Quincy 
shrunk  from  the  performance  of  his  official  duty,  as  Chairman  of  the  School  Committee, 
and  declined  giving  his  casting  vote  !  This  fact  is  worthy  of  being  remembered.  The 
fate  of  the  school  was  then  thrown  wholly  into  his  hands, — it  hung  on  his  individ- 
ual decision.  By  raising  his  finger  he  could  have  saved  it,  and  he  would  not.  Now 
that  he  was  called  upon  to  act  openly  and  decidedly,  he  shrunk  back.  His  cher- 
ished feelings  of  hostility  to  the  school  would  not  permit  him  to  sustain  it,  and  at 
that  particular  juncture,  he  might  have  found  it  inconvenient  to  incur  the  responsi- 
bility of  putting  it  down  ;  for  it  was  a  popular  institution,  and  during  the  month  of 
December,  there  was  not  a  little  excitement  on  the  subject.  It  was  finally  moved 
to  refer  the  report  to  the  next  School  Committee.  On  this  question,  the  members 
were  again  equally  divided,  and  the  Mayor  gave  his  casting  vote  for  postponement. 
Soon  after  the  organization  of  the  present  Board,  the  subject  was  again  referred  to 
a  sub-committee,  of  which  Mr.  Quincy  was  the  Chairman ;  and  the  result  of  their 
labors, — or  rather  of  his  labors, — will  be  found  in  the  report  now  under  considera- 
tion ;  the  real  object  of  which  is  to  discontinue  the  High  School  for  Girls,  and  the 
incidental  to  "  improve  and  elevate "  the  other  schools.  It  has  somehow  hap- 
pened, however,  that  the  accidental  circumstance  has  given  a  name  to  the  docu- 
ment, and  that  the  Committee  appointed  to  examine  into  the  expediency  of  contin- 
uing the  High  School  for  Girls,  have  reported  on  another  and  quite  a  different  sub- 
ject! The  explanation  is,  that  while  Mr.  Quincy  had  neither  forgotten  this  school, 
nor  his  settled  determination  to  put  it  down,  he  could  not  venture  upon  this  measure 
— even  after  he  had  secured  his  election  for  another  year — without  informing  the  pub- 
lic that  he  was  about  to  substitute  something  better  in  its  place ;  and  hence  brings 
into  review  our  whole  system  of  Public  Schools. 

Grant  that  the  High  School  for  Girls  was  but  an  "experiment,"  it  will  not  be  de- 
nied that  it  was  a  very  important  one.  It  was  the  first  institution  of  the  kind ;  and 
as  such,  not  only  excited  a  lively  interest  in  our  own  community  and  country,  but 
oven  in  England,  and  on  the  Continent,  the  establishment  of  this  school  was  honor- 
ably noticed  in  the  public  journals.  It  is  highly  important,  therefore,  to  the  gen- 
eral interests  of  female  education,  that  the  true  result  of  this  "  experiment "  should 
be  known.  If  it  were  indeed  a  "failure," — that  is,  if  our  own  experience  has  made 
it  certain  that  it  is  either  inexpedient  or  impracticable  to  extend  to  females  a  liberal 
course  of  education, — it  should  warn  others  not  to  make  the  attempt  But  if  the 
"failure"  proceeded  from  other  causes,  it  should  be  exposed,  that  the  great  c-ausi- 
of  female  education  may  suffer  no  detriment 

Can  an  "experiment"  be  said  to  have  "  failed"  in  any  correct  sense  of  the  term, 
when  it  has  fully  answered  all  the  purposes  for  which  it  was  instituted  ?  That  this 
has  been  the  fact  with  respect  to  the  High  School  for  Girls  may  be  shown  from  the 
following  abstract  of  the  views  nnd  motives  of  the  School  Committee  in  undertaking 
the  "experiment:" 


38 

1.  On  principles  of  general  expediency,  it  was  intended  to  make  more  liberal  pro- 
visions for  female  education  in  the  city,  by  furnishing  the  girls  a  school,  "  similar  to 
the  High  School  for  Boys,  as  an  object  of  ambition  and  profitable  employment  for 
three  years  of  life,  now  inadequately  occupied." 

As  to  the  success  of  the  school  so  far  as  the  proficiency  of  the  scholars  should  be 
taken  into  the  account,  it  is  not  for  me  to  express  an  opinion.  This  point  is  willingly 
left  to  the  decision  of  the  public.  Even  Mr.  Quincy  has  graciously  allowed  that  the 
"  conduct  of  the  school  was  very  satisfactory  both  to  the  parents  of  the  children 
and  to  the  School  Committee."  And  that  "as  an  object  of  ambition,"  its  influence 
was  even  greater  than  had  been  anticipated,  is  evident  enough  from  the  whole  tenor 
of  the  Mayor's  report.  In  these  respects,  therefore,  the  expectations  of  the  School 
Committee  were  fully  realized ;  there  was  no  failure  here. 

2.  The  Committee  thought  "  it  would  have  a  happy  effect  in  qualifying  females,  to 
become  instructors  in  our  public  schools." 

That  it  has  had  "this  happy  effect,"  is  manifest  from  the  fact  that  several  of  the 
young  ladies,  educated  in  the  High  School,  are  now  engaged  in  teaching ;  while 
many  others,  thoroughly  qualified  for  the  business,  would  gladly  be  thus  em- 
ployed. Here,  then,  there  was  no  "  failure." 

3.  The  Committee  supposed  "  it  would  put  to  test  the  usefulness  of  monitorial  or 
mutual  instruction,  and  the  practicability  of  introducing  it  into  our  public  schools." 

Mr.  Quincy  himself  says  "it  effectually  proved  the  advantage  of  the  system  of 
monitorial  or  mutual  instruction ;"  and  that  it  proved  its  "practicability"  may  be 
safely  inferred  from  the  strenuous  efforts  he  is  now  making  to  accomplish  that  pur- 
pose. Surely,  there  was  no  "  failure  "  here. 

To  what,  then,  is  the  "failure  of  the  experiment "  to  be  attributed?  In  what  did 
it  consist  ?  The  report  states  several  circumstances, — all  connected  with  the  nec- 
essary accommodations  for  the  school, — in  which  the  projects  of  the  committee  seem 
to  have  failed. 

In  instituting  a  High  School  for  Girls,  of  course  it  was  supposed  that  a  house  for 
its  accommodation  would  be  eventually  wanted ;  though  not  absolutely  necessary 
"  the  first  year  of  its  operation."  For  one  year, — one  class, — an  unoccupied  story  in 
the  Bowdoin  school-house  would  be  sufficient.  "Who,  for  a  moment,  dreamed  that 
the  incapacity  of  that  one  room  to  accommodate  the  three  annual  classes  would  be 
construed  into  a  failure  of  the  project  ?  Yet  such  has  been  the  case.  And  more, 
when  the  sub-committee  of  the  High  School  for  Girls  made  their  report  in  August, 
1826,  and  stated  that  "so  far  the  experiment  had  succeeded,  beyond  the  most  san- 
guine expectations  of  those  who  had  first  proposed  it ;"  that  "  the  interest  of  the 
pupils  had  been  so  much  excited,  the  attendance  so  constant,  and  the  desire  of  re- 
maining in  the  school  so  great,  as  often  to  lead  to  a  great  personal  sacrifice  of  ease 
and  pleasure,  rather  than  forego  its  benefits;"  that  "  the  school  had  so  firmly  es- 
tablished itself  in  the  confidence  and  affections  of  the  citizens,  as  to  encourage  them 
to  ask  for  an  appropriation  for  its  continued  support  and  permanent  accommoda- 
tion ;" — Mr.  Quincy,  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  to  whom  this  report  was  re- 
ferred, delayed  making  a  report  till  the  October  following.  And  although  the  exig- 
encies of  the  school  were  pressing,  he  postponed,  in  that  report,  making  any  pro- 
visions for  the  school,  until  the  result  of  the  next  examination  of  candidates  lor  ad- 
mission, should  be  known !  leaving  the  question  of  a  room  to  accommodate  the 
scholars  to  be  settled  after  they  were  ready  to  occupy  it ! 

In  the  same  month,  Mr.  Quincy  addressed  a  circular  to  the  Masters  of  the  Gram- 
mar Schools,  from  which  the  following  extracts  are  made : 


39 

"Suggestions  having  been  made  that  the  effect  of  tho  High  School  for  Girls  is 
disadvantageous  upon  the  character  and  prospects  of  tho  other  schools  in  this  me- 
tropolis : 

1.  By  diminishing  the  zeal  of  the  generality  of  the  other  females  in  these  schools. 

2.  By  taking  away  their  most  exemplary  scholars. 

3.  By  disqualifying  the  masters  from  a  gradual  introduction  into  these  schools  of 
the  monitorial  system,  by  thus  removing  from  them  the  class  of  females  best  qual- 
ified to  become  monitors. 

4.  By  reducing  the  other  schools  from  the  highest  to  a  secondary  grade,  by  early 
depriving  them  of  those  scholars  in  whom  they  have  the  greatest  pride,  and  who  are 
of  the  highest  promise. 

I  am  therefore  directed  to  inquire  whether  there  is  any  foundation  for  these  sug- 
gestions, and  what  effect  has  been  produced  by  the  High  School  for  Girls  on  the 
character  and  prospects  of  your  school."  JOSIAH  QUIXCY, 

Chairman  School  Committee. 

No  one  can  mistake  the  object  of  this  most  remarkable  circular.  First,  "  sugges- 
tions "  are  made  to  the  masters,  that  the  effect  of  the  High  School  has  been  "  disad- 
vantageous "  to  the  schools  under  their  immediate  care !  By  whom  had  these 
suggestions  been  made?  "Who  was  the  author  of  them?  Why  was  not  the  same 
alarm  sounded  with  respect  to  the  Latin  and  English  High  Schools  which  must 
have  produced  the  same  effect  ?  I  must  acknowledge  myself  ignorant  on  what 
principle  of  human  nature  "  the  zeal  of  the  best  scholars  would  be  diminished  "  by 
the  prospect  of  an  admission  to  the  High  School  as  a  reward  for  their  exertions ! 
Finally  the  masters  are  reminded — all  in  sheer  good-nature  and  simplicity  of  pur- 
pose, no  doubt — that  their  schools  were  reduced  to  a  "  secondary  grade,"  and  that 
their  most  "  exemplary  scholars "  were  taken  away !  For  what  other  class  of 
scholars  was  the  High  School  instituted?  If  it  had  not  taken  them  away,  it  should 
indeed  have  been  regarded,  and  justly,  as  a  "failure." 

The  inference  from  this  artful  series  of  leading  questions  is  irresistible,  that  it  was 
Mr.  Quincy's  object  to  draw  from  the  masters  such  a  strong  and  united  expression 
of  opinions  unfavorable  to  the  High  School  for  Girls  as  should  seal  its  fate.  He 
would  thus  accomplish  his  purpose ;  while  upon  them  would  fall  the  odium  and  re- 
sponsibility of  the  act.  I  am  well  aware  that,  hero  and  elsewhere,  it  is  my  misfor- 
tune to  represent  the  character  of  Mr.  Quincy,  as  a  plain,  frank,  high-minded  mag- 
istrate, in  a  questionable  attitude,  to  use  no ,  stronger  language.  But  for  this  I  am 
not  answerable.  The/ocfe  are  not  of  my  making,  they  are  on  record.  If  the  infer- 
ences are  unjust  or  unwarranted,  the  opinion  of  an  humble  individual  like  myself 
will  not  give  them  currency. 

But  if  Mr.  Quincy  wrote  with  these  views,  he  mistook  his  men.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  two  or  three,  who  responded  as  he  probably  wished  and  expected,  the 
testimony  for  the  teachers  was,  for  the  most  part,  in  favor  of  the  High  School  for 
Girls.  However,  Mr.  Quincy  proceeded  to  draw  up  a  report,  stating  the  "  disad- 
vantageous effects  "  of  that  institution  on  the  other  schools,  and  alluding  to  the  mel- 
ancholy and  unexpected  fact,  that  another  class  would  demand  admission  in  a  few 
days ! — whereat  the  reporter  seems  not  a  little  puzzled, — as  he  cannot  readily  con- 
trive how  to  bestow  130  girls  in  130  seats  already  occupied!  However,  ho  is  not 
yet  "prepared  to  recommend  that  tho  High  School  should  be  abandoned,  consider- 
ing its  apparent  past  success,  and  the  general  satisfaction  of  those  who  have  enjoyed 
its  benefits.  He  then  goes  on  to  recommend  instead  certain  measures,  which 
he  now  declares  to  have  changed  every  one  of  tho  original  features  of  tho  plan. 
He  laments  that,  "  instead  of  a  High  School,  as  originally  projected  for  the  admis- 
sion of  girls  between  eleven  and  fifteen  years  of  age,  none  were  to  be  admitted  un- 


40 

til  they  were  fourteen  ;  that  instead  of  remaining  three  years,  the  course  of  instruc- 
tion was  limited  to  one  year."  "Was  the  High  School  really  instituted  for  the  espec- 
ial benefit  of  girls  of  eleven  years  of  age,  as  the  Mayor  intimates  when  he  speaks  of 
the  exclusion  of  "girls  of  eleven  years  of  age,  which  was  one  of  the  prominent  ob- 
jects of  its  institution;"  or  has  he  seized  upon  an  accidental  circumstance,  of  little 
account  or  importance  in  itself,  that  one  more  item  may  be  added  to  his  list  of  "  fail- 
ures ?"  The  original  regulation,  which  required  that  a  candidate  should  be  of  a 
specific  age  to  entitle  her  to  admission,  was  little  better  than  absurd,  and  tlu's  vote 
made  the  matter  worse.  No  limit  of  age  should  ever  have  been  fixed,  under  which 
a  girl  might  not  be  a  candidate  for  admission.  No  restriction  should  have  been  pre- 
scribed excepting  that  of  scholarship.  To  exclude  a  girl  from  admission  to  the 
schools  in  this  city,  where  she  would  be  daily  subject  to  the  care  and  control  of  her 
parents,  simply  because  she  is  too  young,  is  to  inflict  a  penalty  on  industry  and  tal- 
ents. I  know  not  on  what  principle  the  rule  in  question  can  be  defended,  unless  it 
be  the  true  policy  to  deter  children  from  making  a  rapid  advancement  in  knowl- 
edge. Abolish  this  arbitrary  rule,  —  let  scholarship  alone  be  required  for  admission 
into  the  higher  schools,  —  and  their  influence  would  be  more  strongly  felt  in  every 
part  of  the  system. 

It  may  be  remarked  that  Mr.  Quincy's  apprehensions  relative  to  the  expense  of 
maintaining  a  High  School  are  quite  groundless.  In  another  community,  it  might 
be  an  effectual  way  to  bring  a  valuable  literary  institution  into  disrepute  by  mag- 
nifying its  expense  ;  not  so  here.  Besides,  the  grand  mistake  in  all  the  Mayor's 
estimates,  that  "  two  High  School-houses  would  be  necessary  the  first  year,"  lies 
in  taking  it  for  granted  that  every  girl  who  makes  application  is  entitled  to  admis- 
sion into  the  High  School  Nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  the  School  Committee 
might  confine  the  operations  of  the  High  School  for  Girls  to  a  single  house  for  all 
coming  time;  —  by  keeping  the  standard  of  qualifications  sufficiently  high.  "But," 
says  Mr.  Quincy,  "  hi  proportion  as  the  qualifications  for  admission  are  raised,  the 
school  becomes  exclusive,  and  though  nominally  open  to  all,  is  in  fact  open  to  the 
few."  This  is  an  idea  upon  which  he  evidently  dwells  with  great  complacency. 
That  school  must  indeed  have  a  strong  hold  upon  the  pubh'c  confidence,  which  does 
not  become  odious  and  unpopular,  when  the  Chairman  of  the  School  Committee, 
in  his  official  capacity,  openly  proclaims  the  "favoritism"  and  "selection"  and  "ex- 
clusion" of  the  principles  upon  which  it  is  based.  Ought  such  epithets  as  these  to 
be  applied  to  the  High  School,  because  it  was  not  designed  that  aflthe  girls  in  Bos- 
ton should  acquire  all  then-  education  in  it  ?  Is  there  either  "  selection,"  or  "  exclu- 
sion," or  favoritism,"  in  furnishing  to  every  girl  in  the  city  exactly  that  kind  and 
degree  of  instruction  which  she  most  needs  ?  Mr.  Quincy  himself,  in  a  communi- 
cation made  to  the  School  Committee  in  1826,  recommending  that  a  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  all  the  studies  taught  in  the  Grammar  and  Writing  Schools  should  be  re. 
quired  for  admission  to  the  High  School,  says,  "  by  an  adherence  to  this  system,  it 
cannot  be  doubted  that  the  High  School  will,  in  one  or  two  years,  become,  what  it 
ought  to  be,  a.  school  for  the  instruction  in  those  parts  of  science  to  which  the  com- 
mon schools  are  from  their  constitutions  inadequate,  and  for  which  they  were  not  in- 


Now  in  the  face  of  all  these  facts  and  many  others  like  them,  some  of  which  will 
be  given,  and  all  of  which  shall  if  necessary,  —  after  all  of  these  contrivances  by 
which  the  "  failure  "  of  the  High  School  was  compassed,  "  et  quorum  pars  magna 
fui,"  Mr.  Quincy  may  well  say,  —  he  next  proceeds  to  talk  about  the  "  perfect  fair- 


41 

ness  with  which  the  experiment  was  conducted!"  "for  the  most  part  under  the 
same  auspices  which  first  adopted  it!"  The  "changes"  of  which  lie  speaks,  hiivi- 
been  proposed  under  the  particular  "  auspices "  of  Mr.  Quincy  himself,  and  have 
been  effected  by  his  influence,  authority  and  management, — yes.  management;  for 
he  has  in  every  instance  when  a  committee  was  to  bo  raised  on  the  subject  of  the 
High  School,  either  assumed  the  office  of  Chairman  himself  or  appointed  as  Chair- 
man some  one  supposed  to  be  hostile  to  the  institution.  If  there  be  any  exception 
to  this  remark,  it  has  not  come  to  my  knowledge,  familiar  as  I  am  with  the  history 
of  the  school.  At  any  rate  the  assertion  is  confidently  and  fearlessly  made.  If  in- 
justice is  done,  it  can  easily  be  shown,  and  it  will  give  me  pleasure  to  be  convinced 
of  my  error. 

As  an  example  of  the  "  perfect  fairness  "  with  which  "  the  experiment  was  con- 
ducted," I  will  cite  the  course  taken  by  the  Mayor  in  regard  to  changing  the  hours 
of  attendance  at  the  High  School.  At  the  request  of  one  hundred  and  seven  of 
the  parents  of  my  scholars,  I  addresed  a  communication  to  the  School  Committee 
requesting  that  the  school  might  have  but  one  session,  from  8  A.  M.  to  2  P.'M., 
and  giving  a  minute  account  of  the  reasons  which  led  such  an  alteration  of  hours  to 
be  desirable.  As  soon  as  my  letter  had  been  read  at  the  Board,  Mr.  Quincy  has- 
tily forestalled  the  remarks  of  other  gentlemen,  by  expressing  his  decided  disappro- 
bation of  "my  very  extraordinary  proposition,"  as  he  was  pleased  to  call  it.  One 
other  member  of  the  Committee  was  equally  opposed  to  the  change,  and  two  others 
were  doubtful  as  to  its  expediency;  it  was  therefore  determined  to  refer  the  subject 
to  a  special  committee.  "Was  it,  as  both  usage  and  decorum  required,  referred  to  the 
sub-committee  of  the  school?  Bynomeans;  for  they  were  in  favor  of  the  change,  he- 
ing  well  acquainted  with  the  reasons  for  it.  Mr.  Quincy  nominated  a  select  com- 
mittee for  the  purpose,  consisting  of  those  three  gentlemen  who  were  not  friendly  to  the 
measure  proposed !  Two  of  them,  however,  became  satisfied  that  the  change  was  nec- 
essary, and  reported  accordingly ;  and  the  vote  of  the  committee  was  nearly  unani- 
mous for  accepting  the  report. 

It  has  also  been  intimated  that  the  High  School  was  neglected,  by  these  mem- 
bers of  the  committee,  whose  duty  it  was  to  watch  over  its  interests  and  concerns. 
During  the  last  year,  it  was  not  honored  by  a  single  visit  from  the  sub-committee. 
The  Chairman,  Mr.  "Welsh,  was  in  the  room  but  twice,  once  when  he  introduced 
some  members  of  the  Legislature,  and  again  when  he  came  to  witness  the  "Farce  !" 
as  he  courteously  termed  the  late  exhibition.  This  speech  came  with  peculiar  pro- 
priety from  the  Chairman  of  the  Committtee  of  the  High  School,  and  was  the  only 
one  delivered  on  the  occasion !  If  the  "  experiment "  were  an  "  entire  failure,"  why 
was  not  that  fact  announced  at  the  closing  scene,  when  the  attentive  and  crowded 
assembly, — numerous  beyond  all  precedent  in  this  city  on  a  similar  occasion,  could 
have  borne  testimony  to  the  wisdom  and  correctness  of  the  decision  ?  Again,  when 
Mr.  Quincy  wrote  to  the  masters  of  all  the  other  public  schools,  demanding  of  them 
how  many  times  they  had  been  visited  by  their  respective  sub-committees,  was  it 
merely  accidental  that  he  omitted  the  master  of  the  High  School  ?  I  pause  for  a 
reply. 

I  will  give  one  more  instance  of  neglect  When  the  High  School  was  instituted, 
the  text-books  for  the  first  year  only  were  determined.  The  higher  classes  having 
studied  and  reviewed  all  these,  became  impatient  to  commence  the  next  studies  in 
order.  All  verbal  applications  having  proved  of  no  avail,  a  letter  was  addressed 
to  Mr.  Quincy,  urging  in  strong  terms  the  necessity  of  immediate  attention  to  this 


42 

subject.  After  pressing  my  request,  and  waiting  in  vain  for  a  long  time,  I  took 
upon  myself  the  responsibility  of  introducing  such  text-books  as  seemed  best  adap- 
ted to  the  course  of  studies  marked  out;  otherwise  the  girls  in  the  High  School 
would  not  have  had  a  single  book  to  study  during  the  whole  of  the  last  year!  The 
extent  of  this  responsibility  may  be  learned  from  the  fact,  that  any  teacher  who 
violates  any  of  the  regulations  of  the  School  Committee,  shall  immediately  be  dis- 
missed ;  and  these  regulations  provide  that  the  books  used  in  the  public  schools 
shall  be  "such  and  such  only  as  shall  have  met  the  approbation  of  their  respective 
sub-committees." 

"While  the  visits  of  the  committee  were  "few  and  far  between,"  the  only  written 
communication  from  the  board  with  which  I  was  honored  for  more  than  a  year, 
was  a  letter  from  the  Mayor,  reprimanding  mo  "in  good  set  terms,"  because  the 
young  ladies,  of  their  own  free  will  and  motion,  had  agreed  among  themselves  to 
wear  black  silk  aprons  at  the  exhibition !  And  many  of  the  communications  which 
I  made  to  the  board  from  time  to  time,  were  so  far  honored  as  to  be  transferred  to 
the  hands  of  Mr.  "Welsh,  and  nothing  more  was  done  in  the  matter !  The  teachers 
of  large  public  schools  meet  with  so  many  daily  trials  and  vexations,  that  they 
may  feelingly  say,  "  sufferance  is  the  badge  of  all  our  tribe  ;"  but  when  to  these  is 
added  the  marked  hostility  or  contemptuous  neglect  of  their  employers,  their  duties 
become  too  irksome  to  be  endured,  unless  they  are  either  more  or  less  than  men. 

"While  our  worthy  Mayor  was  making  an  array  of  instances  in  which  the  "  origi- 
nal intention"  of  the  Committee,  in  respect  to  the  High  School  for  girls  "had 
failed,"  he  might  have  added  one  case  of  real  "failure"  of  some  importance  to  the 
master  at  least.  He  might  have  said  that  the  board  "  failed "  to  pay  the  salary 
which  had  been  virtually  promised,  and  which  I  had  a  right  to  expect.  In  estab- 
lishing the  High  School,  the  intention  of  the  Committee  was  distinctly  expressed, 
that  the  master  should  be  placed  "in  respect  to  salary  upon  a  level  with*  the  mas- 
ters of  the  Latin  and  English  High  Schools,"  who,  it  is  well  known,  receive  $2,000 
a  year.  And  when  I  became  a  candidate  for  the  situation,  it  was  with  this  under- 
standing. It  was  suggested,  however,  that  it  would  be  safer  to  begin  with  a  smaller 
salary,  since,  if  the  school  were  successful,  it  might  easily  be  increased,  and  with 
these  expectations,  I  was  satisfied  to  accept  the  office  with  a  salary  of  $1,500. 

I  am  unwilling  to  speak  of  my  services  in  the  High  School,  yet  may  simply  refer 
to  their  amount  not  to  their  value.  The  masters  of  the  Latin  and  English  High 
Schools  have  each  under  their  immediate  care  from  thirty  to  forty  scholars ;  and 
each  of  them  has  several  ushers  to  assist  in  the  general  superintendence  of  the 
school.  I  had  under  my  solo  care  more  than  one  hundred  and  thirty  scholars,  and 
in  all  circumstances  was  obliged  to  depend  on  my  individual  resources.  Shall  I  be 
told  that  I  had  the  assistance  of  scholars  ?  So  may  every  master  have.  But  if 
the  school  had  been  badly  conducted,  would  the  scholars  have  been  held  responsi- 
ble? I  have  no  faith  in  the  system  which  delegates  the  authority  of  the  master  to 
mere  children,  and  substitutes  the  instruction  and  discipline  of  monitors  for  his  per- 
sonal services. 

After  the  school  had  been  fairly  established,  when  the  time  for  fixing  the  annual 
salaries  approached,  I  requested  the  Committee  to  place  mine  on  the  basis  origi- 
nally proposed.  I  thought  the  request  would  bo  granted  almost  of  course,  but 
after  a  mature  deliberation  of  several  months,  my  letter  was  returned,  with  a  very 
laconic  endorsement  upon  it,  that  the  request  would  not  be  granted !  No  reason 
was  given  for  this  very  nattering  and  satisfactory  decision.  Indeed,  I  have  never 


43 

yet  heard  any  reason  assigned  why  the  master  of  the  High  School  for  girls  should 
be  paid  one  quarter  less  or  any  less  salary  than  is  paid  to  the  principals  of  the  Latin 
and  English  High  Schools.  His  services  should  have  been  as  valuable,  his  attain- 
ments as  excellent  and  varied  as  theirs.  The  school  undeniably  deserved  as  good  a 
master  as  any  in  the  city,  and  if  the  incumbent  was  not  competent,  it  was  a  mis- 
fortune that  might  have  easily  been  remedied. 

But  one  course  now  remained  for  me — to  send  in  my  resignation(  which  I  ac- 
cordingly did  in  November,  1827.  But  I  would  beg  leave  to  ask  what  would  have 
constituted  a  successful  "  experiment "  according  to  Mr.  Quincy's  ideas  upon  the 
subject  ?  If  the  school  had  excited  but  little  public  interest — if  few  parents  had 
wished  to  send  their  daughters  there — if  the  mode  of  government  and  instruction 
had  been  unpopular — in  a  word,  if  its  members,  from  any  cause,  had  been  so  few 
that  a  single  room  would  have  furnished  the  necessary  accommodations  for  the 
three  annual  classes,  he  would  have  regarded  the  experiment  as  completely  success- 
ful I  Should  any  one  think  this  a  distorted  picture  of  Mr.  Quincy's  sentiments,  I 
beg  him  to  read  his  report  and  judge  for  himself.  But  as  the  school  happened  to 
be  the  reverse  of  all  this,  as  the  public  voice  was  loud  and  emphatic  in  its  favor, 
as  the  strongest  testimony  possible  was  heard  from  almost  every  class  in  the  com- 
munity that  such  a  school  was  wanted  and  demanded,  the  "experiment"  is  de- 
nounced as  "  an  entire  failure,"  and  the  institution  is  to  be  annihilated,  "  as  bodies 
perish  through  excess  of  blood!" 

In  concluding  this  review,  I  would  again  repeat  that  I  was  not  moved  to  under- 
take it,  either  by  personal  interest  or  private  feeling.  It  will  readily  be  conceived 
that  this  opposition  to  the  High  School  for  girls  manifested  by  some  of  the  most 
influential  members  of  the  School  Committee  on  all  occasions,  must  have  been  a 
deep  source  of  mortification  and  regret  to  a  man  whose  hopes  were  all  centred  in 
its  success,  and  who  labored,  regardless  of  fatigue  and  health  and  the  pleasures  of 
society,  to  satisfy  the  wishes  and  expectations  of  its  friends  so  far  as  his  limited 
abilities  would  permit.  The  fact  of  Mr.  Quincy's  hostility  to  the  school  is  mani- 
fest, and  his  unfavorable  account  of  the  "  experiment "  will  be  respected  accord- 
ingly. The  integrity  of  his  motives  has  not  been  questioned.  Doubtless  they  have 
been  pure  and  conscientious;  a  difference  in  opinion  is  no  proof  of  dishonesty. 
But  while  it  is  granted  that  his  opposition  to  the  school  may  have  been  founded  in 
a  sincere  belief  that  the  interests  of  the  city  do  not  require  such  an  institution, . 
it  cannot  be  denied,  that  in  his  zeal  to  put  it  down,  he  has  suffered  himself  to  pur- 
sue a  course  of  measures  which  we  should  not  have  expected  from  an  intelligent 
and  high-minded  magistrate. 

BOSTON',  1828.  KUENEZER  BAILEY. 


BARNARD'S  EDt'CATIOXAL  BIOGRAPHY. 

EDUCATIONAL,  BIOGRAPIIV;  or  Memoirs  of  Teachers,  Educators,  and  I'n> 
motors  and  Benefactors  of  Education,  Literature,  and  Science.  By  Henry 
Barnard,  LL.D.  PAKT  I.  Teachers  and  Educators.  Vol.  I.,  United 
States.  NEW  YOKK:  F.  C.  Brownell. 

PRICE,  $3.50,  in  half  Turkish  Morocco. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I. 

PACE. 

INTRODUCTION— E<lucntionnl  Biography, 11 

EZEKIKL  CHKEVKR,  and  llie  Early  Free  Schools  of  New  England, 13 

fxMTEL  JOHNSON, 43 

CALEB  BIXOHAM, 53 

TIMOTHY  DWIGHT, 78 

THOMAS   H.  GALLAUDET With  Portrait 97 

DENISON  OLMSTED, With  Portrait J19 

MRS.  EMMA  WILLARD With  Portrait, 125 

SAMI-EL  RE  AD  II  ALL .' 169 

JAMES  G.  CARTER With  Portrait, 182 

WARREN  COLBURN With  Portrait, 195 

GIDEON  F.  THAYER With  Portrait 218 

WILLIAM  RUSSELL, With  Portrait, 227 

HARVEY  P.  PEKT, With  Portrait, 232 

WILLIAM    A.  ALCOTT, With  Portrait 249 

WILLIAM  C.  WOODBRIDOE,.  .  With  Portrait 268 

WALTER  R.  JOHNSON, With  Portrait 281 

WILBUR  FISK, With  Portrait, 297 

JOHN  KINGSBURY With  Portrait, 311 

LOWELL   MASON, With  Portrait 326 

GEORGE  B.  EMERSON, With  Portrait, 333 

CALVIN  E.   STOWE,   With  Portrait 344 

SAMUEL  LEWIS, With  Portrait, 351 

HORACE  MANN With  Portrait, 3C).". 

CYRUS  P EIRCE, With  Portrait, 405 

NICHOLAS   TILLINGHAST, With  Portrait, 439 

FRANCIS  DWIOHT, With  Portrait 457 

DAVID  PERKINS  PAOE With  Portrait, 465 

WILLIAM  F.  PHELPS With  Portrait, 473 

JOHN  S.  HART, With  Portrait, 431 

FREDERICK  A.  P.  BARNARD...  With  Portrait, 497 

AVe-  are  glad  to  see  that  Dr.  Barnard  has  consented  to  let  his  publishers  bring 
together  into  one  volume,  the  memoirs  of  eminent  American  Teachers  am) 
Educators  which  have  appeared  in  the  first  series  of  the  American  Journal  <>( 
Education.  Richly  bound,  and  illustrated  with  over  twenty  Portraits,  from  en- 
gravings on  steel  or  copper  by  our  best  artists,  it  is  the  most  creditable  tribute 
which  has  yet  been  paid  in  English  Literature  to  the  scholastic  profession.  It 
forms  a  splendid  and  appropriate  gift-book  to  Teachers,  and  Promoters  of  Edu- 
cational Improvement. —  Connecticut  Common  School  Journal,  for  Ftbruary,  1859. 

This  elegant  and  useful  contribution  to  educational  literature  will,  we  trust, 
receive  a  cordial  welcome  from  teachers.  Nothing  ever  issued  from  the  press 
could  bo  a  more  appropriate  ornament  for  the  teacher's  library  or  center- 
table. — Massachusetts  Teacher,  for  February,  1859. 


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